


Triangles

by SweetAshori



Category: Dr. STONE (Anime), Dr. STONE (Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Character Study, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Drama, Drama & Romance, F/M, Flirting, GenHaku, Love Confessions, Love Triangles, Multi, Out of Character, Romance, Senhaku, Surprise Kissing, genkoha
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:15:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 45,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24765289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SweetAshori/pseuds/SweetAshori
Summary: In which Gen jokingly flirts with Kohaku, Kohaku is seemingly oblivious, and Senku becomes rather annoyed for several, unsure reasons, all the while everyone else is confused on what the hell is happening with this odd group.
Relationships: Asagiri Gen & Kohaku, Asagiri Gen/Kohaku, Ishigami Senkuu & Kohaku, Ishigami Senkuu/Kohaku
Comments: 18
Kudos: 126





	1. Dizzy Spell

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Dr. STONE. This is obvious, but I like doing these for the fun of it, so a disclaimer it remains.
> 
> Authoress' Note: Been really on a kick lately with these fics! This actually started to develop with a headcanon that I started to establish with “Fever”, but you don't need to read that story to follow this one. Please enjoy!

Gen Asagiri is a mentalist, that was a known fact. He took great pride in his ways of analyzing, deconstructing, reconstructing, and subverting all aspects of the human psyche with his variety of tricks and clever lines. He also took great pleasure in how his methods confuse, amaze, and annoy those around him, twisting people around his fingers to do as he desired and gain what he wanted. In his previous life – in the modern world, before the mysterious green light engulfed the world and turned all human lives into stone statues – this brought him all sorts of fame and fortune, something he desired above all else. However, in the current stone world, his techniques had made him a valuable double-agent for the two realms fighting for control on how to revive the world and reinstate its former glory – the ruthless Tsukasa Empire, whose leader was the one to revive him from his statue state, and the brilliant Kingdom of Science, lead by another man from the stone statues, Senku Ishigami. It was the Kingdom of Science where his loyalties most lied, being brought in by the impressive feats of scientific advancements and discoveries that the genius managed to make happen in this primitive world, sucked in by his charisma, intelligence, and wit, all in pursuit of his ultimate goal.

His allegiance to the Kingdom of Science wasn't just because of his intrigue in what Senku has been able to do and what he knew the scientist could accomplish, but he knew that, by working with this faction he would ultimately gain things that he wanted. Gen was not above admitting that he was a self-serving sort of man, and with Senku's abilities, he would certainly gain back those things he coveted the most from his previous life. Although... he suppose that, despite the massive amount of work the mentalist was put through usually by force, things right now weren't so bad.

Despite himself, he actually found himself enjoying the rag-tag crew that made up the Kingdom of Science. Of course, he hated the large amount of work that Senku – and occasionally old man Kaseki – put him through, wanting to live his life to the fullest with the most minimal effort possible, but at least the company he had wasn't so bad outside of that unfortunate fact. Whenever he wasn't working – and sometimes when he was – he spent much time observing those around him, picking up the little quirks and traits they exhibited. Namely to find ways to manipulate them as he saw fit down the line, but also out of curiosity, given that – other than Senku and himself – they were all born thousands of years after the petrification and the loss of whatever the world had before.

The simplest person to follow was Suika, the little girl with the watermelon head piece that was fitted to be used as glasses, curing her “blurry eye sickness”, as it was called now. She was a child, a cute one at that, eager to help out whenever and however she could. She was nimble and crafty, being able to follow him and his subtle clues whenever he had made the effort to find out more about the operations in the Tsukasa Empire, and so Gen admitted that he had come to trust this little one likely just as much as he did some of the others. Although, due to her age, he had to be very careful on some things he would say around her, not wanting to corrupt the child with adult matters. The next was Kaseki, the elderly craftsman that was brought into the Kingdom originally against his will, but quickly warmed up to the challenge. Gen was actually decently intrigued by his work, given how much of what he was doing now he had no idea was something that could've been done. To see what this man be able to accomplish based on Senku's instructions, what he's been able to manipulate and create, was mildly entertaining, even when he was dragged into the work against his own free will.

The next entertaining pair on his list were the guardian brothers of the village and the Kingdom, Ginro and Kinro. The two could not be any more opposite in most regards, although Gen had learned quickly how easily they could be manipulated into doing whatever Senku desired of them, as well as being fooled by his own little tricks. Kinro was the more respectful of the pair, being forthright and too honest to a fault, which was admirable but boring. Ginro, on the other hand, was far more childish, and shared his similar enjoyment for the greedier things of life, although he did appreciate his ability to sober up and become serious when it was needed, showing that there was a level of maturity to him. The mentalist rarely interacted with the two, having no real desire to unless it was for a reason or for something to do, but it wasn't as though they were above his watchful eyes either.

Besides Senku, there were two other people within the Kingdom of Science that he had the most interactions with, and by far the ones he trusted the most out of the villagers, that garnered the most of his curious gazes. The first of these was Chrome, the man that deemed himself a sorcerer before learning that what he devoted his life to was called science. While his depths of knowledge was, not surprisingly, lacking compared to that of Senku, Gen did appreciate the young man's aptitude to understand, learn, and follow, as well as his equally fierce devotion to the plan of reviving the statues. His devotion to protecting another – the priestess of the village, Ruri – was also quite admirable, another thing that garnered respect.

The other was the fierce guardian woman, Kohaku, the younger sister of the aforementioned Ruri. Kohaku was not the type of person he expected to find in this day and age. He was used to women that were more... flaky, for lack of a better term. She was not such a woman. Forthright, strong, had a good head of sense, quite temperamental and quick to anger, yet also very caring and soft... She was not one to fall easily for his little tricks, and he found that to be rather refreshing. It didn't help that she was also rather attractive, a weakness that drew him a bit closer to her, but still made sure to keep his distance to avoid having a blade at his throat. She was the last one to come around to trust him, understandably so. He had heard her often called a “lioness” or a “gorilla”, referring to her strength and anger, and that did make him a bit frightened of her, but also respected her for not being a typically demure sort of female. In his honest assessment, if he were to compare her to her sister, Gen did find himself quite a bit more attracted to Kohaku.

Not that he had any intention to pursue her, however... oh no, if anything, he knew he wouldn't have a chance at her, even if he had the opportunity. In all the time he had been within the presence of the Kingdom of Science, there was one thing he had noticed above all else: the connection between Senku and Kohaku. He had heard how it was Kohaku that brought Senku to her home, where he established his reign, and as such became one of the most trusted allies to the genius scientist. Since then, it was obvious that the two shared some strong chemistry, and Gen rarely saw a time when the two of them weren't within close proximity to one another. He had pondered, a few different times, if there were sparks of something more between them, but Senku made it very clear to everyone that such things were illogical, unwanted, and unneeded, while Kohaku was a mysterious book when it came to romantic ideals, at least, for herself. Still, those dark cerulean eyes of the mentalist saw far more than both led on. An extra touch here or there, lingering gazes, smiles and smirks shared with no one else... if it weren't for the ultimate goal being more consuming for the king, surely he would also be befallen by the queen huntress.

As it was every day, Gen watched over the camp with a seemingly blank gaze, despite the fact that he was put to work on a task to create more of the ingredients needed for the ramen that the village became so enamored with, with Suika at his side also doing her best, and her gaze also landed upon the pair in question. Yes, as it always seemed these days, Senku was standing with plans in hand about some sort of invention or craft that they needed to get done, with Kohaku right next to his shoulder, gazing intently over it with ears and eyes all curious about what he was doing, and Senku seemed extremely pleased to have her undivided attention and making no motion to push her out of his personal space. Of course, Chrome wasn't too far away, overly excited over whatever the idea was – something that was never a surprise to the mentalist nowadays – so it wasn't as though he was too interested in what the brunette was really up to.

No, as always, it was Senku and Kohaku that gathered his attention. For a man that was against all sorts of affection, he definitely wasn't against having a close audience, with the blonde bombshell so close that she was practically leaning on him. Gen found it to be amusing every time he saw the two like this. Yet, he also admitted, he was a bit envious of Senku. To have such a beautiful woman so devoted to be by his side, but with none of the connections and commitments of a relationship... Ah, he was a man of pleasure, for sure, and while he did not desire Kohaku's attention all for himself in such ways, it was a simple, envious feeling to be placed – at least in this aspect – within Senku's shoes to have a fawning beauty nearby. Granted, if he truly wanted feminine companionship, he had heard many talks about some of the ladies of the village wanting a handsome man and he could make himself available to them, but honestly, the thought didn't really thrill him as much as it likely would've back in the day. Ah yes, Kohaku was definitely a far better catch, he agreed, and how could dear Senku not notice that for himself? Lady Science must be the best sort of company if he could so easily ignore the woman beside him...

A devilish thought came to his mind... oh, this sounded like much fun! Of course, much of it hindered on his own hypothesis related to the unattached pair – ha, listen to him, acting like a scientist! – but it was something that was growing more and more enticing to enact as he thought it through. It wasn't just that, however, but it was something more to do besides just be some sort of unwilling lap dog to whatever was demanded of him, something that could prove to be a lot of fun. And maybe, just maybe, a little bit of payback for all of that forced labor as well.

But how to proceed... that was the first thing he had to come up with. Obviously, it would have to be a very convincing trick, given who he had to entice, but it also needed to be simple. Nothing complicated, nothing that would draw in a bunch of suspicion, especially from Senku, swearing that the man had just as much skill in manipulation and understanding of the human psyche as he did. His eyes turned very briefly towards Suika... ah yes, involving her would be a smart idea. Both of them had an obvious soft spot for the little girl – not that he didn't have one himself, of course – and it would garner far less questions because her naive innocence would beset some of the risks.

Now for the timing... obviously, he needed to act when Kohaku wasn't devoting her time to Senku's new designs, wanting to draw her attention the most, knowing that it would – with all likelihood – draw Senku's in afterwards. He watched for the longest time – while keeping busy to his work, of course, to prevent any sort of premature end to his plan – waiting for the right moment to finally act. At last, it finally came, when Kohaku made a glance towards the two of them working, telling him that soon she would be making her way to check up on them and see what they have done, likely with the offer to help if they needed it or to allow for Suika to take a break. A smirk to himself... that was the right moment.

He began to act as though he was panting, brushing his brow of sweat – which did exist, but acting as though there was more there than what was visible – those deep breaths drawing the blonde child's attention.

“Gen, are you okay?” she asked concerned and Gen privately laughed to himself... yes, she was so easy to hook because of her gentle spirit.

“Oh, I'll be alright! Just feeling a little dizzy all of a sudden,” he answered, trying to wave off the question while keeping up his little suffering act, “It is a bit hot today. Perhaps I'm a little dehydrated.”

“I'll go and get you some water!” she eagerly offered, standing up and leaving her work behind, running towards where she had known there was a set-up of clay flasks and purified water for those to partake from during the warmth of the day.

Her running caught Kohaku's attention, and Gen had to kick his plan up another notch. Once again, brushing his brow, he moved to remove the outer violet coat of his clothes, leaving him in the makeshift yukata he had fashioned, placing it in a heap beside him. Like clockwork to his plan, she made her way over to where he sat, eyeing him with a bit of concern herself.

“Are you alright, Gen?” she questioned him, and once again, he laughed to himself... how easily this idea was working out! At least, so far.

“Ah, Kohaku-chan~ I'm sorry, I'll be alright! I just feel a little dizzy, likely from this heat, that's all. Suika-chan is getting me some water; that should be enough,” he tried to brush off the concerns, his outward act trying to convince that his words were false, the hope that it would be enough to hook onto that caring instinct of the woman to stay.

She knelt down to be more on his level, a small frown on her lips and a tilt to her head, the whisps of bangs floating in front of her face as she did. One arm reached out, the back of her hand resting against his forehead, followed by each cheek. He was momentarily taken aback by her check-up – not something he expected to happen at this point, but it showed that he had her convinced that something could be wrong – but didn't allow for his brief moment of surprise to distract him from his act.

“Hmm... you do feel a little warm,” she muttered, touching her own face in a way to compare the heat she felt, “Well, if you need a moment to cool off, I can handle things for a bit for you. Go get yourself under some shade and cool down.”

“Ah, I just might do that, thank you,” he commented, making a move to stand, but then feigning a small fall, Kohaku's arms moving quickly to grab at his shoulders, steadying him with a worried gasp of her own.

“Whoa! Gen, are you sure you'll be fine?” she questioned, that maternal tone of her voice heightened by her concern at the man's sudden fall.

“My apologies, Kohaku-chan,” he replied, his voice having a forceful, raspy tone in hopes of selling his “fate” to her, “I didn't mean to fall on you.”

“Don't worry about that, seriously. If you're starting to feel faint, definitely take a break!”

“Yes, yes... Perhaps for a few moments. But with how I'm feeling, I may not make it to the shade...”

“I can carry you over there?” she offered, motioning to the nearby trees that were offering an abundance of shade.

He deadpanned at the idea. It wasn't as though she couldn't do such a thing, he knew that – how a dainty-looking woman like her could carry a grown man's weight like it was nothing was beyond him! – but he definitely did not want to be seen carried in her arms. That did not fit at all into his plan! With half-lidded eyes, he gazed up at the young woman, wanting to plead to that sense of hers that was wanting to help.

“Perhaps... I can borrow your lap? Just for a spell?”

Blink. Blink. “My lap...?”

“Yes. Just to lay my head down for a few moments, just until this dizzy spell passes. It would be far better than the ground or tree, I'm very certain,” he explained, turning up the charm a little bit in hopes of convincing her, knowing she was growing suspicious due to his request, “Of course, if you don't feel as though I'm right, I'll make my way over to the trees. I don't want to trouble you anymore than I already have.”

She tilted her head again, her lips in a half-pout of uncertainty, before sighing and moving to sit beside him, bending her legs towards her side while folding up his coat into a makeshift pillow, placing it on her lap before motioning for Gen to lay down. He was beside himself; she was actually complying with his request! Oh, the gears were spinning with delight at how much his little idea had progressed. But steady now... there was still more to go. After all, he hadn't had the chance to look for Senku and seeing if he was paying attention to what was going on. It was plausible, highly, that he wasn't paying attention at all, and much of this was for naught, but first things first...

With a relieved sigh, Gen thanked the young woman before laying down, the back of his head nestling against his coat, closing his eyes as Kohaku's hovering shadow blocked the sun from his face. The moment he had settled in, Suika had returned with the water, causing him to sit up enough to down the cup, thanking the little one as well, before she ran off to grab a large leaf or cloth to try and use as a fan, allowing him to settle back down again.

“Is all of this helping a bit, Gen?” Kohaku asked curiosity, delicately brushing the bangs from his face to check his forehead again.

“A little bit, yes, thank you. Just a few moments more, if you please? I'm very sorry for disturbing you. I'm sure dear Senku has a lot of work for you.”

“Don't worry about that, Gen. What's more important is that you don't collapse on us. We don't want to spend more nights taking care of you like before,” Kohaku replied, making a joke about the night that Magma had attacked him, thinking that Gen was the “sorcerer” trying to corrupt the village, “So just rest; it's really not a big deal.”

“Ah, yes... I'm not sure if I ever fully thanked all of you for that,” he remarked, a bit of sincerity echoing in his voice, “Truly, I appreciate the care you all gave me. Especially with not knowing where my loyalties lied.”

“Yeah, well... Senku seemed pretty trusting, so if he believed in you, I supposed we should've as well,” she remarked, looking up towards the sky, “Although, I was ready to kick your ass the moment we realized you ran back towards Tsukasa, if Senku didn't stop me first.”

She looked back down at him, flashing the man an unexpected smile, “Glad that it turned out he was right to trust you, though.”

Despite himself, Gen felt actual heat to his cheeks; she was being stunningly honest in this moment, and he wasn't expecting that sunshine-bright smile of hers. She was very cute in this moment, almost too cute, he inwardly commented. However, he coughed slightly, covering his mouth as he tried to refocus on what he was doing, “Well, yes... thank you for that.”

Kohaku chuckled, her little joking mood getting the flustered reaction she wanted; after all, with him feeling a bit under the weather, it was a good time for her, as well, to mess with him as payback for all the times he had messed with their heads. She didn't pick up that he was faking all of this, thinking that he was truly dizzy, which was good for him, as he was sure if she had realized he was faking his illness she wouldn't be this honest with him, and would be pushing very hard to the ground with a screaming fit about him taking advantage of her kindness as well as a hit or two to the head. Luckily for him, Suika returned, kneeling down on his other side, fanning him down with a ripped piece of fabric she had found.

“... Don't you look comfortable.”

Three sets of eyes turned towards the voice, belonging to the green-ombred haired leader of the bunch, standing before them with a bemused smirk and arms crossed over his chest. “Senku!” Suika exclaimed, “Gen suddenly started to feel sick, so we're trying to help him feel better!”

“And I'm very grateful for the help,” Gen remarked with a feigned smile.

Senku wasn't convinced, and that wasn't actually a surprise. Given the amount of times Gen has tried to weasel his way out of doing work, any little act of his would be met with a great amount of criticism and cynicism. “Oh? Really?” he asked with that questioning tone of his, “With what?”

“Just a little dizzy spell. It's quite hot today, and I'm sure I hadn't properly hydrated myself. Been so busy with all of the food preparation and all of the other tasks you've graciously put me in charge of,” Gen commented with his usual dry and sharp wit, “I promise, I'll complete them all in a bit! Just needing to rest my head for a moment.”

“Uh-huh.”

“He did feel rather warm, Senku.”

“I'm sure he did.”

“Really think he would fake such a thing?” Kohaku questioned, one brow quirked and Gen was feeling a bit uneasy as his plan started to unravel.

But this was the great Gen Asagiri! He knew exactly how to play this game, especially against a worthy opponent like Senku. Despite all of the walls and barriers he attempted to put up, the mentalist knew that he had a couple of weaknesses. One was obvious: his love of any and all thing science-related. However, this situation didn't play to that desire, so he had to play off of the second weakness: the feelings of his closest companions. And Gen knew that Kohaku was one that he cared most about, even if he didn't admit to it at all.

“Fine, fine. I'll get back to work,” he said with a sigh, staggering himself to try and get up, keeping up his act of feeling faint, but he didn't get far before a gentle hand pressed on his chest.

“It's okay, Gen, you don't need to get up right now,” the blonde coaxed before turning her attention back towards the questioning scientist, “Senku, I don't believe that he's faking.”

“How do you figure?”

“I checked him myself. He feels rather warm.”

“He's really been working hard, I swear!” Suika added, “I've been working with him, and he's done a lot! And it is pretty hot today, and if he's not drinking enough water, that can make you not feel good in the heat, right?”

A vein in Senku's forehead twitched. He was, ten billion percent, sure that Gen was pretending to be ill to get out of doing the work he was given. He wasn't too surprised by Suika's defense – she was naive to a lot of Gen's trickery – but he was surprised by Kohaku's defense. Out of all people, he figured she would easily see through one of his games. Yet, here she was, with the man laying upon her lap – of all things! – fighting against Senku's better judgment.

“Just give him a few moments, okay? It won't do any harm for him to rest a bit. The work will still get done. I'll make sure of it,” Kohaku reasoned, a bit of a threat in her tone as she spoke the last words, making both Gen and Suika mildly shiver.

Senku clicked his tongue, still frustrated with the whole situation, but it wasn't worth his time to fight. “Whatever,” he relented, waving off the group as he made his way over to Chrome and getting back to the work that he wanted to get done today, “Do what you want.”

Gen was relieved to see him walking away, but also satisfied with what had happened. He had definitely got under Senku's skin with his little act, and that was more than what he expected to happen with this little experiment. He sighed, turning his head back towards Kohaku, who was still eyeing Senku's back, “Thank you for your assistance, Kohaku-chan. And of course, for yours, Suika-chan.”

“You're welcome! Do you want me to get you another cup of water?”

“Yes please, I'd greatly appreciate it.”

“Okay!”

Suika did as told, standing up and taking the empty container back with her towards the purified water, leaving Kohaku and Gen alone again for the moment.

“So... are you faking it?” she questioned, that voice of her thick with suspicion.

“Hmm? O-oh, definitely not, Kohaku-chan! I do feel rather dizzy today!”

Kohaku gazed down at him with lips curled into a half-smirk, and Gen swallowed the lump in his throat. He was going to get hit in the head, he just knew it! Ah well, the victory was nice while it lasted... He sighed and smiled, closing his eyes before he resigned himself to his fate. Yet no pain came to any part of his frame. Instead, he felt the cloth that Suika had held placed upon his face, patting away the sweat from his brow. Eyes opened again, lips parted, obviously confused.

“Kohaku-chan?”

“I'll give you two more drinks before you have to go back to work. Got it?”

The mentalist blinked, then laughed both out of relief and embarrassment, and she also chuckled before turning attention back towards Suika, who had returned with the water, now a bit confused as to why the two adults were laughing. They didn't explain it to her, telling her it was just a private joke, which seemed to sedate the child for now, going back to fan the befallen man.

From where he was working, Senku glared at the trio, clearly annoyed at what was going on.

\----------

The evening eventually arrived, and as the fire roared and meals were eaten, gentle conversation was made. It was another day of progress for the Kingdom of Science, and despite the earlier disgruntlement from Senku earlier, the scientist was pretty pleased with the results for the day. In the end, Kohaku was true to her word, making sure that Gen had completed what he was told to do, with no more dizzy spells slowing things down, and that was – seemingly – enough.

He still wasn't sure what really bothered him more about the little spat, but he didn't give it much more thought either. It wasn't really worth the time to try and figure it out, either.

After awhile, the group began to break apart, heading towards their homes or beds, the night calling for them all to sleep and rest to prepare for the next morning. However, a few lingered, finishing up a bit of cleaning or chatting about something to do in the morning.

Gen had noticed that Kohaku was still around, sitting by the fire with one of her blades in hand, working on sharpening it. A task she had put off for most of the day, he had to assume, and figured in the quiet of the evening before bed was the perfect time to make sure it was done. He smirked at the prospects laid before him, looking around casually for Senku. He was around, of course, going over one of his chicken-scratch road maps with Chrome, and Gen was sure that – if he played his cards right – he would likely be drawn towards the conversation he could strike up with the huntress. He was still very certain that Senku was – for him, anyway – mildly annoyed with what he had pulled earlier, and what's a little more riling up? That, and a tiny nagging feeling gnawing at the back of his head was telling him that he should give a proper round of thanks to Kohaku for her care earlier.

“Ah, Kohaku-chan~ Burning the midnight oil, I see?”

The lioness looked up at him with a confused gaze, “Huh?”

“It's an expression. Refers to people working into the late night,” Gen explained, sitting down next to her with arms buried within the sleeves of his coat.

“Oh. Interesting,” she replied, “I guess so. I noticed that this blade was getting a bit dull when I checked it earlier. Wanted to make sure I fixed it before I went to sleep.”

“Makes sense. Actually, I'm pleased to see that you're still here.”

Kohaku made a little “huh” noise, putting her blade and sharpening stone down on her lap, turning her full attention towards the mentalist. Gen smirked, pulling from his right sleeve a flower. She couldn't tell what kind of flower it was, given that Suika was more of the expert on the different flora types than she was, but it wasn't entirely surprising to see it wrapped in Gen's fingers. Flowers were part of his usual misdirection tricks, after all.

Gen leaned over, tucking the flower behind her left ear, “My thanks for your earlier help. I really appreciate you taking care of me during my dizzy spell.”

She blinked, then shrugged her shoulders with a smile. “It really wasn't that big of a deal. You weren't feeling good. I just did what was right,” she explained, fingers subconsciously going up to touch the soft petals of the flower.

“You're too modest, Kohaku-chan~” he sing-songed, shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders as he spoke, “You didn't have to do anything for me. You know dear Senku was correct, in terms that I could've been faking my malady. After all, I think you all know I dislike grueling, physical labor.”

“... Actually, I was more than sure that you were pretending.”

“Eh?” Gen made a noise, brows raised high and eyes widened, feeling the sweats coming back despite the cool night air as Kohaku watched him with that half-smirk of hers, “R-really? Then why did you go along with it, if you thought I was tricking you?”

That smirk turned into that breathtaking smile that stunned him earlier, “Figured I'd give you the benefit of a doubt. I mean... you're a compulsive liar, but doesn't mean there aren't times when you're telling the truth, right?”

Another rush of heat came to Gen's cheeks. When did she become this cute!? And when did she wise up this much to play toe-to-toe with his games? Mayhaps he underestimated this buxom vixen in terms of being a worthy opponent of his mental prowess... He didn't have much time stay in his reverie before her brows furrowed and that smile turned dark, one hand reaching out and fingers grabbing one cheek in a hard pinch, pulling at the skin.

“Next time you try to pull such a stunt, though, don't expect me to be so lenient on you, got it?” she threatened, making sure that the mentalist got the message... ah, she was back to normal it seemed.

“Yes yes, I understand! Completely understand!” he instantly agreed, waving his hands in the air, tears forming at the corners of his eyes from the pain.

With that answer, Kohaku released his cheek, pleased that her message had gotten through crystal clear, Gen instantly rubbing the reddened appendage, as she turned back to her blade. With a few more clicks of the sharpening stone, she looked over her work, satisfied with it, placing it back in the sheath along with her other blade and shield, placing the set back on her back before she stood up and stretched.

“Well, I'm off. See you in the morning, Gen,” she bid her farewells, waving to him before waving to Senku and Chrome, who had turned towards them at some point, before walking away from the fire and back towards the village.

Dark cerulean eyes lingered upon her for the longest time, not sure why he was doing so, before finally chuckling and looking away, standing up himself. It was getting late; it was time for a good night's rest. He wasn't sure what sort of torturous work that Senku was going to put him through to make up for his stunt today, but he knew it was coming. Besides, he was more than entertained for awhile now; one or two days of hard labor likely wouldn't sour his mood.

As he walked towards the observatory, he caught Senku standing by the ladder, arms crossed over his chest as he leaned against one of the support beams, Chrome already made his way up the ladder and into the observatory for the evening. He looked quite irritated, and Gen chuckled to himself while keeping his expression unchanged to make sure he didn't let on his inner excitement.

“What are you playing at, mentalist?”

The question made Gen stop short of the ladder, aligning himself up with the scientist but didn't make the motion to look over at him, eyes closed and head lowered. “What ever do you mean, dear Senku?” he asked in return, feigning his ignorance.

Senku was not fooled, of course, a turn of his scarlet eyes towards the crafty gentleman, “With Kohaku.”

“With Kohaku-chan? Why, I really don't know what you're talking about.”

“Stop trying to act the fool. You're not playing it well.”

Gen laughed, “Oh really? I swore I did. Seemed to have got me out of many a situation already.”

One set of fingers clenched, hidden by Senku's bent arm, and his chest heaved hard as he seethed. He was definitely getting riled up, and Gen had to do everything he could to keep himself from laughing. Oh, this was a great cap to the day! His hypothesis was starting to show signs of promise, but it was too early to call victory yet. After all, this may not actually be related to any sort of feelings the scientist might have budding for the huntress; it could be frustration with Gen taking up her time with nonsense when he needs her for tasks related to the building up of the Kingdom. Turning away from the ladder, arms within his sleeves, that toothy smirk upon his face, he faced off with the scientist, just as they usually did, but Senku did not turn towards him, continuing that sideways glare.

“Do you have some sort of feelings for her all of a sudden?”

“Feelings? I feel very confident that she is a comrade.”

“That's not what I mean and you know it.”

“I'm afraid I don't.”

Another seething breath, and Gen's eyes flickered with a glimmer of delight at seeing the usually stoic man showing such range – however subtle – of emotions. Ah-ha, there was a bit more to prove his hypothesis! “Really, I'm so in the dark of what you're implying! If you're referring to me giving her that flower, it was all in thanks for her help when I was feeling ill,” he continued, removing his hands from his outer coat to raise them in the air, shaking his head, “I would've given one to Suika-chan, if she hadn't already gone home. Both were very sweet today, making sure I could get to feeling better right away.”

Scarlet eyes narrowed, and Gen took on the challenge. “My my, dear Senku! Such a glare!” he proclaimed, “Are you still angry that Kohaku-chan took my side earlier? That's not fair for you to take that out on me, you know. She was just being a good friend, that was all.”

“Tch.”

“Oh my, you are, aren't you?!”

“Not in the slightest.”

“Really? Now I think that you are the one that's lying.”

Senku scoffed again, pulling himself away from the support beam, facing Gen head on, really wanting to wipe that smirk off of the mentalist's face. He was very irritated by how Gen was trying to play him like a fiddle, acting haughty as if he had hit some sort of nerve within the scientist – which he certainly did, but he sure as hell wasn't going to let that be known.

“Nothing is going on between Kohaku-chan and I, but even if there was... what exactly would be wrong with that?” Gen finally asked, one long pointed finger against the side of his lips, “It's not as though she is attached to anyone. And it's not as though there's anything wrong with a bit of harmless flirting here or there.”

“She's not some dumb girl that you can try and coax into your harem dreams.”

“I feel offended that you'd even suggest such a thing!”

“Good.”

A twitch to a thin brow, but Gen was not deterred. “Honestly, Senku... if I didn't know any better, I would think you were jealous,” he commented, letting slip that little thought of his, and he swore that those crimson irises of his grew darker at the insinuation.

“Not in the slightest,” Senku repeated again... ah, there was that twitch of his fingers, a slight gritting of teeth as he uttered those words... Oh-ho, more proof, more proof!

“Really? Are you sure? I mean, not that I can blame you! Kohaku-chan is a stunningly beautiful woman. Yes, she may be as strong as a gorilla, but that's only one aspect to her. I wouldn't fault you if you had--” Gen responded, stopped by the pull of his collar, his eyes widening just a small fraction as he was forced to face those frightening vibrant orbs.

This was definitely a turn... One of the few emotions Senku was good at expressing was anger, but like with much else, he was usually rather placid with showing it. Some shouting, glares... that was usually the extent of it. Never did Gen see a physical manifestation of this emotion, nor did he expect to be the one on the opposite side of said exchange. Now, Gen was a smart man, he knew Senku would not go farther than this; he was not one to extend into physical violence. This was just an extra bit of “incentive” to listen to what he had to say. He was the king of this castle, and Gen was just a soldier in his arsenal; that's exactly what this was, and the mentalist had no fear of the younger man's bark or bite.

“I won't let you do a single thing that could lead to Kohaku getting hurt. You understand that?”

“Oh my, there's no need to threaten me--”

“Can the crap, Gen. You've made your selfish intentions clear from the first day we met. If you want to get your jollies off on someone else, go ahead, but I won't let you use her like that.”

Gen wanted to snicker at the use of “jollies”, a word he didn't quite expect Senku to use, but he kept his expression steady, not wanting to let any sort of clue on how he was actually feeling in this moment slip. Senku may be intending to act as a protective friend, trying to prevent something from happening before it could even begin, but the split-monochrome haired man was seeing far more beneath the surface of his words. There was a spark there. The scientist may found the idea of romance to be beneath him, unimportant, illogical, but clear as the stars in the sky Gen could see that little spark. He was a step closer to completing his initial experiment, but more paths were starting to open up. However, he knew he had to be careful: one wrong step and he would be thrown onto his ass. But Gen was used to tempting fate, and he found he quite liked coming close to the fire. Part of his job is apparently having some masochistic tenancies, he supposed.

“That sounds like the talk of a possessive lover, my dear Senku,” he responded, and that grip on his collar became a smidgen tighter.

If looks could kill, there would be a dozen blades in Gen's skull by now, but luckily for him, it was just a glare and it couldn't do much harm. With a rough toss, Senku released his collar, another scoff meeting a relieved sigh. “Whatever. I meant what I said, Gen,” he said with one last threat before walking away, needing to cool down, feeling his blood pressure skyrocketing and knowing he had to get it to come down before he even attempted to try and go to sleep.

Why he was acting this way, he didn't quite know... it didn't make logical sense. Yet he was, and that within itself was making his blood boil. There's no reason for him to feel, at all, the way he did... he was definitely, ten billion percent, not jealous of the attention that Gen was showering on her or how she was reacting to it. And he was definitely, ten billion percent, not possessive over the woman either. He didn't want some failed relationship to derail the Kingdom of Science, and he knew that, if the two were to become involved, that's exactly what would happen. Gen had no real interest in Kohaku in a serious way, and while Kohaku was not a typical woman to instantly swoon over extra attention, if something were to happen and things went poorly, it would not go over well. First loves rarely end amicably, and that's why he wants to protect Kohaku... It was for the sake of what they were trying to build, that's all. It wasn't for any other reason. No other reason at all.

Fixing the collar of his yukata, Gen watched as he stomped off, taking note of how his fists were still balled, now at his sides, how he seemed to be hunched over and stomping about. This wasn't over, the mentalist knew, but obviously Senku was done for the moment. And that was just fine; he had all of the results he needed for right now. As he turned and climbed up the ladder, greeting Chrome for a moment before making his way into the sleeping bunk below the floor, he pondered all that had happened.

… This was going to be more fun than he initially thought, and he was – for lack of a better phrase – getting excited for the next step. All in due time, of course, he knew that. He couldn't rush this, knowing how easily things could derail, and besides, if he rushed, he wouldn't be able to have nearly as much fun. As he wrapped himself up in one of the blankets, preparing for his nightly slumber, he couldn't help but smirk to himself.

Oh yes... this is going to be a lot of fun, indeed.


	2. Dancing

The day was rather pleasant. Not too hot, not too cold. Things were normal otherwise: everyone doing their assigned work. Kohaku, Ginro, and Kinro were engaging in mock battles for training, Kaseki was working on something within the furnace, Senku and Chrome working upon creating something or another with large chunks of wood, while Gen and Suika stayed far away from the more dangerous tasks, keeping their hands full with busy work. Overall, a typical day for the rag-tag crew of the Kingdom of Science.

Of course, Gen was not thrilled with having to participate in the laborious process, but at least he was being forced into some sort of hard labor. It must truly be grueling to be near all of those hot processes, and he was grateful that he was able to sit in the shade with little Suika, conversing about this and that. It was a bit boring – after all, there was only so much he could really talk about with the child, given his desire not to corrupt the poor girl any further than what Senku had done with all of the scary science terms – but sometimes boring was okay. Still, it would be nice for something more fun to happen, just a little something to make this busy work go a little faster...

His eyes landed upon Kohaku, watching as she walked away from the guardian brothers and towards Senku and Chrome, rubbing her brow clean of sweat from her sparring. She kept enough of a distance, making sure not to get in the way of their work in case something flew off in her direction, but was close enough to strike up some sort of conversation with them. It was a few nights ago that he and Senku had their little spat over the huntress, and while things had seemingly been laid to rest, Gen knew that the scientist was watching him warily, trying to make sure he didn't try to pull any more stunts. However, Senku's threat did little to scare him; Gen had faced scarier before, and besides, he wasn't doing anything harmful. Just a little bit of fun, a little bit of flirting, a little bit of playing around with Lady Science's basic principles.

Of course, he did have to modify things a little bit in terms of how to proceed with his experiment. He definitely couldn't try to do something similar to his fake dizzy fit, given how wary she was going to be of a second round. No, he had to do something that didn't involve some sort of illness, something that didn't seem as though he was attempting to get out of work. The latter was going to be difficult to pull off as it was, as he knew that, to some, it'd appear that way regardless, but if he could frame it as being related to some sort of break, it'd garner far less suspicion that way...

He let out a loud sigh, leaning back to stare up through the trees. Suika turned towards him, curious, “Is everything okay? You're not feeling sick again, are you?”

“Oh, not at all!” he replied, trying to reassure his companion, “Just been drifting in thoughts today, feeling that tinge of nostalgia.”

“What does nostalgia mean?”

“It's a term when you think about the past. Things that usually make you feel happy.”

“Oh, like the harem thing?”

“Er... yes, like that,” he replied, feeling a bit sheepish – he did greatly regret bringing up such a term in front of her; she still pressed every once in awhile to learn what, exactly, that word meant and he certainly wasn't going to let her know, no matter how much she pressed.

“So what kind of things make you happy, Gen?” Suika pressed on, dropping her work for a bit to intensely listen; she did enjoy hearing stories about things from Gen and Senku's world, even if she didn't fully understand all of it.

“Hmm... let's see...” he pondered, crossing his arms over his chest, one finger extended to tap upon his chin, “Senku's cola was fairly delicious, but back in my day, we had large varieties of cola available, in all sorts of different flavors. I missed having such wonderful selection to quench my thirst.”

“Maybe Senku can try and make some of them for you!”

“Maybe. Perhaps one day I'll ask. Let's see, what else... Well, there was the stage, and all of the bright lights and fame that came with my work. It was nice to have an audience hanging on my every act, although I suppose that's not much different than what I've been able to do now. Hmm...”

He tried to think of something else to add, something that would be more interactive, something that he knew how to do or could easily fake it until he made it, something that would entice curious eyes to look over and curious bodies to walk over... something that would entertain his current audience... Ah, an idea came to his head! “Dancing,” he muttered, the melon girl perking up at the foreign word.

“Dancing? What's that?” she asked, her voice squeaking in curious delight.

“It's an activity where you spin and twirl and move to the beat of music,” he explained, the pointed finger now in the air as he continued, “It's something that people could do by themselves, but I personally enjoyed it with the company of others. There were hundreds and thousands of different dances you could do. All sorts, from all around the world. Every country and all types of people had their own signature dances. They were a wonderful sport to watch, but even more fun to participate in.”

“Whoa, so many!” Suika exclaimed, shocked by the numbers he used, Gen laughing at her surprise, enjoying her childhood innocence.

“Yes, so many. Of course, I don't know all of them, but there were a few I enjoyed. I learned some moves to accent my acts, and occasionally it was enjoyable to do outside of work,” he replied, then sighing heavily, “It's too bad that, along with music, such things had been lost to the past.”

“Can you still show me, though? I want to see what dancing is!” she asked, her body quivering with untamed excitement, and Gen smiled at her eagerness.

“Hmm... it may be a bit odd without music, but I'm sure we can do something. Would you like to try and dance with me?”

“Yes, yes please!”

“Alright. But first, could you please remove your sandals? In case you go and step on my toes, it would hurt far less if you stepped with bare feet.”

The two stood up, with Suika making quick work to remove her footwear and setting them aside to where they wouldn't be in the way. What Gen had told her wasn't entirely untrue; he did have some skills in dancing, namely as a way to add a bit of flourish to his routines, but it wasn't as though he actively partook in the sport. Still, he knew he could run her through a few basic steps, and that would be more than enough to satisfy the eager young lady. Well, at least he hoped; he didn't account for how bouncy she was acting, practically dancing on her own as she jumped up and down from the balls of her feet.

“First, we start off with a little bow from me to you,” Gen commented, going into his teachings with showing the physical bow, one arm across his torso with a bend at the waist, “Then a curtsy from you. Just hold the ends of your poncho out and bend at your knees a little bit.”

Suika nodded, grasping the ends as requested and bending her knees, buckling slightly at the bit of unbalance that came with it. “That's it, good job!” Gen complimented, “Now, take my hands.”

She did as told, their arms outstretching towards one another, Gen having to bend a bit to try and compensate for their differences in size. His long fingers wrapped around her small palms. “Alright. I'm going to count as we step. Just try and follow along; if you need to look down at your feet, go ahead,” he instructed before he began to move, counting each step as he did, “One, two, three~ One, two, three~”

Suika squealed as they began to move, watching as they took small strides, side to side, moving around in a circle, the blades of the grass tickling her bare feet. They were dancing, she was dancing! She giggled loudly as Gen released one hand, speaking as he spun her around three times, one of her legs raising up slightly from the ground as she twirled, before grabbing the released hand, going back to the count of their steps, all the while complimenting how well she was doing. Occasionally, she did get ahead of herself, stepping on his toes and apologizing profusely, but he waved it off with understanding, going back to the counts right after. The mentalist was strangely enjoying himself, finding her laughter to be infectious to his own spirit. Ah, to be young and innocent once again!

After several turns and twists, finally Gen went into the last move of the dance, once again twirling her around, but this time bending her back in a short dip, Suika making a “uwah!” noise as one leg went in the air in an odd way to keep balance, her free arm waving at her side, shaking slightly as Gen brought her back up.

“Ta-da~ Excellent, Suika!” he exclaimed, wiping a bit of sweat from his brow, “You did magnificent!”

“That was SO much fun, Gen! So, so much!” the melon-hatted girl yelled, “Can you teach me another dance? Pretty please?”

Gen laughed sheepishly; he really didn't know another dance to really do with the young girl, and while he did have fun with this dance, it was a bit difficult to dance with her due to the differences in their sizes. Thankfully, he didn't have to stall for long as he attempted to come up with an answer before they were joined by a curious – and, for Gen, the correct – audience.

“Hello Kohaku, Ginro, Kinro!” Suika greeted all three of them with enthusiasm.

“What are you two up to? We saw you spinning around,” Kinro asked, usually not as curious as his brother but what the two were doing enticed his gaze.

“Gen was teaching me about dancing!” the child replied, “He said it was one of the things he missed from his old world, and I asked him to show me what it is, and he danced with me! It's a lot of fun! I'm a little dizzy though, but that's okay! Gen said there's hundreds and thousands of dances out there, and I want to learn more!”

“Dancing, huh? That does sound like it could be fun,” Kohaku remarked, patting Suika's excited head before turning her attention towards the mentalist, “Since we're on a break for a bit, could you teach us too, Gen?”

“Of course~ I'd be more than honored!” he replied, secretly doing a small victory dance in his head.

He was hoping this would happen. He knew that Senku would soon be looking upon the congregation of people standing around and not doing the work they needed to do and would be wanting to investigate. He knew that he would be able to easily hook the scientist's gaze and ire if he were to interact with Kohaku, given the “warning” hanging over his head. What's more, his little thought of dancing was the perfect method to allow him to get close to the young woman, enabling a chance to further prove his hypothesis by observing what Senku might do, whether in relation or in retaliation.

The trio removed their shoes, just as Suika had done, setting them all to the side. Gen motioned for the men and Suika to fan out a bit, allowing for extra room, before extending out a hand to Kohaku. “Will you dance with me, Kohaku-chan?” he asked her, and she was not sure about that mischievous smirk upon his face.

She nodded her head regardless, taking his hand. “Alright. I'm going to hold your hand like this,” he remarked, holding their clasped hands in the air, “Place your other hand upon my shoulder.”

She did as she was told, her free hand resting cautiously upon his shoulder, making a small growl when his free hand rested upon her lower back, their bodies coming within inches of touching one another. Ocean eyes narrowed, but Gen did not allow it to disturb him. “No need for such a look! This is the basic starting position for what is known as a waltz. It's similar to what I performed with Suika-chan, albeit I had to modify it slightly for her height,” he explained, hoping that it would help to make sure he didn't get something thrown at his head, “Now, I'll be counting our steps as we go, so just try and follow along. You can look down at your feet as you need to.”

As he had done with Suika, he began his count, moving from side to side, step by step, going around in a circle. This time, however, Gen was able to keep a better pace, finding Kohaku to be the better partner of the two, although that thought didn't surprise him. And as Suika had done, Kohaku had kept a strong eye on her feet, occasionally stepping on Gen's toes when she faltered in a step, apologizing for the accidental injury but ultimately the dance continued. The mentalist took great enjoyment in the methods he was able to do for the twirls, turning and twisting her out before bringing her back in with minor clashing of their frames, taking a bit of delight in the little squeaks she'd make as he did.

Occasionally, he would attempt to look upon the audience around them. By no surprise, Suika and Ginro were the most enthralled by the sight before them, their eyes as wide as saucers with the biggest, goofiest grins he ever did see. Kinro was also rather intrigued, although his expression was far more tame in comparison. However, it wasn't their looks that he was trying to find.

On another glance, he finally noticed it, those crimson eyes watching the scene, walking towards the crowd along with an equally curious Chrome. Gen inwardly smirked; perfect, just what he wanted. Satisfied with knowing that Senku was now watching what was unfolding, Gen put a bit of an extra flourish into the dance, taking a few extra strides. Kohaku was beside herself, trying to keep up with his steps, making little yells as he brought her into a quick dip, bringing her back up with a twirl before continuing their one-two-three steps. “Wonderfully done, Kohaku-chan~ You are a perfect partner for this!” he complimented loudly, “Although, I suppose given your athletic ability, dancing is an easy thing to pick up.”

“T-thank you,” Kohaku accepted the compliment, her cheeks a little tinge of pink from the work out, trying to make sure she doesn't accidentally step on Gen's toes once again, trying to keep her gaze on Gen over her feet, “I can see why Suika really enjoyed this, though.”

“And you?”

“Hmm... I suppose it's a bit fun.”

Gen chuckled, liking that smug smirk across her lips, once again forcing her into a twirl, bracing himself back into their starting position as she crashed back into his body, this time with less force as she was aware of what was about to happen. “I'm glad to hear, but I suppose it's time to bring this one to an end,” he remarked, “And one, two, three~”

With the final countdown, he twirled her twice around in place, going in for the final dip, Kohaku's hands instinctively gripping at Gen's jacket in order to keep a bit of balance, nearly causing the master to falter as well, their heads a few inches away from knocking into one another. The sound of enthusiastic clapping echoed through the air as they smiled at one another, laughing for a moment before Gen graciously leaned her back properly on her feet, still keeping a hold on her hand for a moment as he gave a thankful bow before turning back towards the onlookers.

“Wow, that was so pretty to watch!” Suika exclaimed, “Super, duper pretty!”

“Huh. That is an interesting technique,” Kinro remarked, a hand on his chin in thought, “I'm admittedly curious on what other sort of dances there could be. They likely aren't all this simplistic, are they?”

“Oh man, I want to try that! Kohaku, dance with me next!” Ginro exclaimed, reaching out grab Kohaku's hand and instantly receiving a pounding on the head in return for his indiscretion.

While the four of them gathered and talked about what had transpired, Gen turned his attention towards Chrome and Senku. Chrome was mildly amused by the dance, but Senku was less so, the mentalist could tell. Now, whether it was due to everyone gathering and wasting time or because it was related to the intimacy that he just shared with Kohaku, he wasn't quite sure yet, but a few provoking questions would certainly gain the answer he was seeking.

“Ah, I see you two decided to join the festivities after all!” he exclaimed, acting as though it was the first time he had seen the two.

“Well, yeah. Everyone was pretty loud, and you two were making quite a scene,” Senku dryly commented, “Never took you for much of a dancer.”

“You wound me, dear Senku~ Part of a magician's show is to act in a way that distracts and misdirects; nothing quite does that like a bit of dancing,” he responded, moving with a litany of nonsense steps as he spoke, “In a way, some of the things we do can also be connected to dancing.”

“What do you mean?” Chrome asked, genuinely curious about the comment.

Gen laughed, one finger pointed in the air, “Well, think about it... look at the way that Kohaku, Kinro, and Ginro move as they spar. How they leap and lunge and parry. Each move is fluid, precise, making attempts to hit or deflect your target. Now, remove the weapons and fists from the equation; can you see how such movements can appear like a dance?”

The brunette crossed his arms, tilting his head with a thoughtful pout as he envisioned the trio's usual sparring routine. “Hmm...” he hummed, “Yeah, I guess so, when you put it like that.”

“I would also argue that Senku dances around with Lady Science every day, but it's more in terms of the process than the actual experiments. Many dances require precision in terms of the moves and counts used, much like what is necessary for the different scientific processes we've come to use so far.”

“Feh, that's a flimsy way to try and connect the two,” Senku scoffed, almost acting offended by the effort.

“That's why I said that I would argue, not saying that I was actually doing so.”

“Uh-huh.”

“It's so much fun to dance, though! I'd love to know more!” Suika chimed in, “Especially if there's hundreds and thousands! It'd be neat to see them all!”

“Unfortunately, I don't know all that many dances, I'm afraid, so seeing them all will have to wait a bit,” Gen answered with a little bit of feigned regret, “However, I'm so glad to see you enjoying yourself, Suika-chan~”

“Yeah, well, you'd be able to see them faster if we all focused on our work,” the scientist added with a bit of irritation.

Kohaku rolled her eyes, overhearing his comment, “I think everyone realizes that, Senku, but it's okay to take a bit of a break here and there, right?”

Crimson eyes narrowed, but sea-green eyes didn't become perturbed, glimmering with a bit of playfulness. Just as Gen enjoyed teasing Senku, she also found such enjoyment, although she didn't act on it as often as the mentalist would, preferring to use such tricks on occasion when it suited the mood. She also preferred the subtle act of teasing, versus being more blunt, highlighting her level of intelligence to try and stay on his level, at least somewhat. Although, in this case, it was slightly less of a tease and more of a stated fact: she really didn't find anything wrong with the occasional break, and honestly felt as though Senku needed to let himself go a bit often. Yes, she knew that it was because he was steadfast on his goals – something she admired the most about him – but one of these days, she was afraid he was going to break because he had wound himself up so tight in his work. Of course, she knew Senku would waive her concerns off with a disgruntled “thanks for worrying, but I'm fine” and not do anything in relation to them, hence why she never brought up the idea, but this was an unique opportunity for it to come up naturally.

Senku scoffed, turning away with arms crossed as Suika stepped up to Chrome, asking her to be her dance partner, to which the brunette was a bit unsure but ultimately fell for the melon girl's adorable charm. Kohaku smiled at the two interacting, before turning her attention back towards Senku. “Hey, why don't you come and dance with me?” she asked, approaching his side, leaning over with a tilt to her head as she tried to make him meet her gaze, hands behind her back as part of her cute, enticing act.

Senku was aghast by her invitation while Gen was trying to hide his entertained smirk, his attention turning from Ginro's disappointment in rejection back towards the odd couple. This was a turn he didn't expect to happen, but once again, welcomed. If anything, the mentalist was pleased that Kohaku was doing much of the work for his experiment for him, using his prompts as the springboard. Of course, no one but him knew what he was doing, appearing as just a natural progression of events, just as he wanted, but still, every turn in this game was opening new doors and new paths and he was definitely enjoying the ride.

“I think you'd have a lot of fun,” she implied, reaching for one of his folded arms, gently grasping at one of his arms and pulling it back from its folded position, “Come on, Senku, let me show you--”

Her words were cut off by a loud slap, Kohaku's hand flying back, and all parties were stunned into silence by the act. They never saw Senku act in such a way before, at least not with Kohaku. She brought her wounded hand into her other, rubbing away the sting to her skin, her heart racing as her gaze met those dark eyes. There was a glimmer of anger, but also surprise, as if he was also stunned by what he had done. And he was; he didn't mean to react in such a way, and definitely didn't mean to harm her, but he had done both, judging by that expressive flicker that went across her face. He brushed the back of his head, turning his head away, “I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that.”

Kohaku didn't say a word, turning away herself. “Kinro, Ginro, let's go back to training. Break's over,” she muttered, walking past Senku with her gaze towards the ground, still holding onto the aching hand until she got towards the open part of the field where they would do their battles.

The brothers glanced at one another, unsure of what to really say or do in this situation, but ultimately knew that they should listen to Kohaku. They grabbed their sandals, Kinro also grabbing Kohaku's abandoned footwear, running quickly to join her. Chrome, Suika, and Gen remained, looking at one another, also unsure of what to do next. Senku was trying not to shake, his eyes lingering on Kohaku as she dove right into battle. He truly didn't mean to do that to her. Everyone knew that he was not a person that handled physical affection well, but that didn't justify what he had done. She wasn't Taiju, who Senku had to push off many times when he would pounce upon him in the efforts to squeeze the life out him, nor did she mean any sort of harm by trying to grab at him. He should've just pulled away or yelled at her, but slapping her shouldn't have been his option. He regretted it the moment he did it, the moment he saw that pain etched on her face.

“Hey man, I'm sure she's okay. I think she's probably more stunned that it happened,” Chrome tried to reassure his friend, “I mean, you didn't mean to do that, right?”

“Of course not,” Senku replied through gritted teeth.

“Then tell her that. Well, later, when she's not trying not to pummel Ginro. So glad I'm not one of them right now,” he remarked, Suika and Gen nodding in agreement to the last comment.

Senku didn't respond to that, finding the comment asinine; he knew that much already, but would she listen was a completely different story. Frustrated at the dead end he was facing at the moment, Senku turned away, going back towards where he was working. Putting his mind through the paces would be the best for now, he told himself. He stepped past Gen, their gazes meeting for a moment, but neither man saying a word. Chrome passed a glance to Suika, apologizing to her for leaving without dancing with her as she wanted, following closely behind Senku after he took large steps to catch up to him.

Suika frowned, “I hope everything will be okay.”

“They will be,” Gen replied confidently, although he knew that she wasn't exactly meaning just the two of them with her hope, “Come on, Suika-chan, let's go back to work ourselves.”

\----------

Kohaku didn't join the crew that night, by no one's real surprise. Kaseki, while he didn't observe what had happened, had heard the tale and reiterated what Chrome had said before. Senku was rather annoyed by how much they were hounding that into him, acting as though he was stupid, eventually commenting on that fact, glaring heavily at Gen when he made a condescending comment in relation to his lack of social grace. Eventually, Senku left everyone behind to try and find the huntress, although he hadn't a clue where she had gone. He knew that she hadn't returned to the village, hearing that Ruri was wondering where she had gone as well, but otherwise he hadn't a clue. Without being asked, Suika had gone into her “detective” mode, also trying to help him find her, eventually giving him the clue he needed.

She had made her way towards an open field with a few trees around. It was this area where she had sat with Chrome and Senku, talking about the stars and learning for the first time about magnets and magnetic forces. Honestly, the blonde wasn't sure why she came out this way, settling herself in one of the trees, back against the broad trunk with one leg stretched over the branch with the other swinging next to her. The view of the stars and half-moon were nice, but namely she just wanted to stay away from everyone. She was embarrassed by the situation that happened earlier, but more than that, she was ashamed. Ashamed that she had done something so bad to Senku that caused him to lash out.

It was not Kohaku's intention to make him upset. All she wanted was for him to dance with her, to take a break, to unwind a bit, to relax. But she was too pushy in that pursuit, and she was told in no uncertain terms that she had done wrong. That look in his eyes, the pain in her hand, it all told her that she had gone too far. And while he apologized, she knew he didn't really have to. He wouldn't have done that if it weren't for her, but she couldn't get the words to escape her lips. That's why she put her head down and went back to training; she couldn't say anything to him. The physical pain hurt, but nowhere as much as the mental pain in the aftermath.

She was the one that needed to apologize, but how? She sighed, closing her eyes as she absentmindedly twirled a wisp of her hair in her fingers. This was beyond frustrating, and she knew keeping her distance wasn't going to help anything, but--

“Hey.”

Her ears perked up on that voice, turning her head enough to see who it belonged to, and she instantly felt a pit of dread in her stomach. “Senku.”

Their gazes met for a moment before turning away. “How did you figure that I was here?” she asked, looking back up towards the sky.

“Suika saw you making your way over here.”

“Ah.”

Silence overtook them both as Senku made his way over towards the tree, leaning against the trunk with arms crossed over his chest. Kohaku glanced down at him for a moment before closing her eyes, sighing as she leaned her head back against the tree. Her heart was racing in her chest, and that dreadful feeling in her stomach grew. She knew what she had to do, but like before, it was sticking in her throat. How hard was it to just apologize? She couldn't believe how difficult of a time she was having with two simple words. She gritted her teeth, hiding a balled-up fist to one side of her that she knew Senku couldn't see if he had tried to look up. Another sigh, taking a deep breath, she opened her mouth to speak--

“I'm sorry,” they both said at the same time, much to their united surprise.

Gazes fell upon one another. “No, I'm the one that's sorry!” they said again in unison, once again surprising one another for the same wavelength of conversation.

They blinked, then finally laughed, the awkwardness of the moment drowning out for a bit in the sound, before resurfacing and taking back over, their gazes turning away from one another again.

“I shouldn't have done that, at all,” Senku reiterated from before, “I'm sorry that I hurt you.”

“No, I shouldn't have done what I did,” Kohaku replied, “I didn't mean to make you so mad that you had to lash out.”

“I wasn't mad, just surprised.”

“Still...”

Kohaku jumped down from her perch, landing on her feet with her hands acting as extra bracing and a push-off as she stood up, the two figures turning towards each other now that they could stand face-to-face. Once again, their gazes met – scarlet swimming in an ocean pool – their lips in straight lines, the distance between them only a few inches but feeling like miles. A lump formed in Kohaku's throat and she swallowed hard.

“I just... I worry about you, Senku. And before you try and dismiss me like I know you would, just listen. Please,” she said, holding up a hand to try and stop him from saying something, which she could tell he was about to based on the slight parting of his lips, feeling a little bit of relief in the pit as he settled down, allowing her to continue to speak.

Lowering her hand, she straightened herself out, shoulders becoming square with arms resting at her sides. “I like your commitment to science. I like that you care so deeply for it, even though I don't fully understand all of it, and I like that you're so focused on your ultimate plan. But...” she continued, hesitating a bit, “I'm afraid that one of these days, because you're so tightly wound in your goals, that one day you'll hit a road block and it'll hit you so hard that you'll break down.”

Senku raised a brow at her insinuation, but didn't make the motion to verbally rebuttal her claims. “I worry about how you handle things. You're so focused on everything that I'm sure you've skipped meals and stayed up all night. You're so focused that you rarely take a break, and that's what I think will lead to your downfall,” she added, a small crack to her voice that she hoped he wasn't picking up on, “You've placed all of this pressure on yourself, and I know we all appreciate your hard work and you know how supportive we are in pursuing this goal with you, but I'm worried about you. Sometimes you need to take a break, unwind, just not think about your work for a bit, let your mind relax. I get scared that one day you're just going to hit the wall, and... and I don't want to see that happen to you.”

There. She finally said it, finally approached the subject with him. Not that she expected him to react in any way other than what she predicted, but still, she said it. It was out in the open, and that was that. For the longest time, they just stared at one another, the words hanging over their heads, before finally Kohaku couldn't handle the gaze any longer. She moved to the side of the tree, sitting down against the trunk. “You don't have to say anything, if you're trying to come up with something, I mean,” she replied, “I just wanted you to know what I thought.”

She folded in her legs, resting her arms around them, her hands clasped together. Senku didn't say a word, just as he was, watching as she closed herself off, the courage she had before now diminished. Her eyes stayed on the sky, as if she was hoping the stars and moon would drown out the oddity that was this situation, and he groaned, leaning back against the tree with arms crossed as he did before.

“Thank you for your concern, Kohaku.”

She braced for that eventual “but”, surprised when it never came. A quick glance upward towards him before back towards the sky. “Of course.”

“I do take breaks, however.”

“Not in the way I'm talking about. Ever since I brought you here, it's been non-stop building.”

“Yeah, because there's a lot to rebuild. Two million years of science and discoveries.”

“I get that. You got a lot on your shoulders. But ever thought of just letting that go for a bit? Even if it's just for a few minutes.”

“I do.”

“No, you don't. I'm not ignorant, Senku. Even when you're not actively working on something, you're still thinking about your next step, what's next on that road map.”

He didn't have a retort for that, and Kohaku's fingers gripped harder around her hands.

“When I say to take a break, I mean do something that has nothing to do with science. No talking of it, no thinking of it, no nothing with it. Just... being in the moment.”

“... I see.”

Senku joined her in sitting down, one leg bent inward with the other stretched out, one arm in his lap while the other hung over the bent knee.

“... I admit, that's not something I'm so easily able to do.”

“I realize that. But I think you can, and you should.”

He scoffs, and she smiles, just as they usually would. Things were settling down, and the dreaded feeling in her stomach subsides. Same for his, although he chose to ignore it. Her gaze remains on the stars, although she allowed her arms to fall from their position, resting haphazardly on the grass. He dropped his arm from his knee, resting now on the ground. Their fingers were close enough to grasp one another's hands, but they didn't make the move to do such a thing, their eyes upon the sky. The warm breeze of the evening rustling the leaves of the tree was the only sound breaking the silence between them, and Kohaku reveled in its gentle caress, closing her eyes as her head tilted slightly towards Senku's direction. Crimson eyes turned to watch her for a moment, before he joined her in closing his eyes, trying to take the advice she had given him to heart.

A break, huh... of course, he wasn't so infallible that he was above taking breaks when he needed to. However, her observations were correct that the breaks he takes were namely that in name only; he was constantly at work, constantly having the gears of his mind turn and grind, and while he didn't think that it mattered or that it bothered him, he was obviously sending out signs to others that perhaps his overworking was a detriment to the overall cause. To take a break to do something that wasn't at all related to science, to not think of his work... he laughed to himself. She was implying that he should act like an average, everyday young man every once in awhile, and the idea of that was both comical and a bit sad. It wasn't as though he, purposefully, thought he was above such trivial things that people like Taiju and Yuzuriha would do back before the petrification, or things such as the dancing that Gen had decided to introduce to this new world; he just didn't see much use in it personally. But, perhaps... perhaps every once in awhile, it wouldn't hurt...

“... Alright.”

“Hmm?” Kohaku opened her eyes, turning her head a bit more to gain a better look at his face, curious as to what Senku was trying to say.

“I'll try to take a break every now and again. No science, no road maps, no inventions, nothing. Just a complete and total break,” he responded, turning his head towards her, ignoring the short amount of distance between their faces, “Okay?”

Kohaku smiled, nodding her head, glad that he was seeing her reasons and seriously applying them, “Okay. Good to hear it. Thank you, Senku.”

She turned back around, back towards looking up at the sky, unconsciously raising a hand to her chest, relief filling a huge place in her heart. The motion didn't escape the scientist's watchful eyes, hinting how heavy this was on her mind and now that he had given her reassurance, the weight was lifting off. And he couldn't deny, he also felt a sense of relief. That feeling of regret bothered him a lot more than he would ever let on. He was not such a man that would, with intent and purpose, hurt someone, especially a woman, and the fact that he did – and to Kohaku, no less – weighed hard on him. He was thankful for her forgiving heart. He knew of the old adage about the woman scorned, and someone like Kohaku would clearly fall into such a category, but luckily, she was not holding this momentary digression of his character against him. She had no reason to; even after it happened, the moment he apologized, she had already forgiven him, even if she didn't say it due to her own shame cloaking over the moment.

With the matter settled, another thought began to creep through Senku's mind, and he nearly flinched as it made its way through. That bat bastard... what made him think of doing such a thing as dancing? Granted, him knowing any sort of things like that wasn't outside of the realm of possibility, and hearing that it came up casually in discussion about nostalgic things wasn't implausible either, nor was Suika's curiosity about such things either. Those things aren't what bothered him, given the logical aspects of it. No, what bothered him more was the dance with Kohaku. It was innocent, he was sure of it – she asked to learn, and he obliged to answer – but like before, that disturbing feeling came to his head. That feeling that caused him to lash out at Gen in the first place, warning him to cease his flirtatious acting in relation to the woman. Despite him knowing, almost certainly, of the nature of the event, watching the two of them – the flustered look in her eyes, the tinge of pink on her face, the smirk he had as she would crash into him after each twirl – dredged up that odd feeling during the act, and now again as it crept back in. Damn that mentalist... seems as though he needed to put him through a lot of extra work to keep his mind and hands busy to keep him from doing more of these stupid things...

Then came the vision of her eager face, asking him to dance with her, that coy smile of hers as she tried to entice him to join in the fun. Such a nonsense activity, yet she seemed as though it was one of the most delightful things she's ever participated in. Perhaps for her it was, as someone that had such physical prowess and flexibility already, but all he saw was tiring physical activity and WAY too much physical contact than he was comfortable with. Still, despite that, she insisted, and he could understand why now... a means to take a honest-to-good break, to do something completely out of character and out of any reasonable means of the scientific process...

He scoffed, brushing a hand through his green-ombred locks, and Kohaku turned her gaze back towards him as he let out an unprompted laugh. A blonde brow quirked as he stood up, brushing out his lab coat before stretching out an arm to her, palm and fingers outstretched as to ask her to take it.

“Senku?” she asked, lifting a hand to push back her bangs as a breezy gust rushed past, ruffling the golden locks to get in her face.

He leaned towards her a little closer, his fingers wrapping around that lifted hand, pulling it and her up and off the ground, the entire time the lioness remaining confused as to whatever he was doing, his expression unreadable, unable to determine what exactly that troublesome mind of his was plotting.

“Look, uh... I can't say I'm going to be as good as Gen, because this sort of crap isn't my thing, but...” he stammered, turning away as he felt sheepish with her staring at him, not releasing her hand either, “I owe you a dance, I think.”

Blink. Blink. Followed by a short laugh, muffled a bit by a hand covering her lips. “You don't have to do that, Senku,” she responded, her voice filled with joy over just the mere offer, “It's fine if you don't want to dance. The only thing I really wanted to do was get you to have a bit of fun, that's all.”

“I want to.”

Now that surprised her, and the laughter died with it, eyes widen and lips parted, his fingers twitching around her hand, blue eyes following as he took it and her other hand and brought them to rest on his shoulders, a small “eep!” leaving her throat as he pulled her a bit closer to him, hands firmly resting on her hips. Both of them were fighting back the urge to blush, whispering “one, two, three” as they began to move in tandem, in slow and steady steps, around in a circle, their feet and bodies aligned, following the same tempo with neither attempting to get in the lead over the other.

This dance was not like the ones from earlier, that was obvious, but it wasn't just in the way they danced either. Yes, the dance didn't have the wide range of motion as what she had done with Gen – Senku's aversion to heavy physical labor whenever possible was a valid reason as to why, as well as an obvious lack of knowledge about the subject in comparison to the mentalist's skills – but there was a bigger feeling of emotion as they moved, as their eyes tried to look away but always came back to gaze and drink in the reflection of the other's orbs, as her arms slowly lifted upward, hands folding over one another around his neck, as his arms moves to wrap themselves more around her waist. Their faces met, noses and forehead touching one another, and while there was obvious heat in their cheeks, they smiled at one another, eventually not counting at all, the rhythm established without a need to keep a tally.

Senku couldn't believe he was willingly doing this. Being this physically close to someone was beyond his character, yet the longer they danced, the less uncomfortable he felt. How odd... perhaps it was because it was Kohaku. He was comfortable around her, not minding when she would get close to him as they ate or when she would hover over him as he discussed a building plan. Even as they sat before, they were very close to one another physically, and that didn't bother him. Yes, perhaps, because of that, he didn't feel any need to continue to feel awkward around her during this one-time event... of course, that didn't explain the extra thumping in his chest as he became lost in admiration of her soft and beautiful features, but he wrote it off as being related to the dance itself. Yes, his heart was beating faster because of the activity, that was all.

From beyond the field, hiding himself cleverly behind some trees, Gen watched the scene before him, his lips curled into a smirk. He shouldn't have followed Senku out to here, but he couldn't resist wanting to see what would happened. Obviously, they had made up – which he was happy for that! - but to see them dance, and such a romantic and simple dance at that, was a delightful sight. Oh, if that wasn't fuel for his hypothesis...! It was hard to keep back his excitement over having more evidence of the budding romance between the scientist and the lioness, but he kept himself compose. Arms folded into his coat, he turned away, walking back towards the Kingdom base and towards the others who were still left wondering if they were okay, leaving them to their privacy, not wanting to risk being discovered for spying and knowing what punishment could come if he were caught.

After all, that would be a terrible way to end such a beautiful moment.


	3. Storytelling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG, this chapter was a slog to get through! I had the idea of how I wanted it to end, but trying to get there I had to re-write several times before I was finally satisfied with it. I was hoping to have it finished before the start of SenHaku Week so I could update this and start up the week at the same time, but obviously that didn't happen... I appreciate everyone's patience as they waited for the update! I really hope you enjoy it!
> 
> The next few chapters I have mostly planned out, so I'm hoping to be able to write them up quicker than I did this one. Please look forward to it!

And Senku made good on his word to Kohaku about taking a break. Several days later, as the heat rose once again to where everyone was feeling some of its effects, he called for something completely odd for him: a day off.

A day off? From Senku's mouth? What sort of delirious trick was this!? Even the heat can get to the scientist's brain, after all... of course, despite the initial confusion over the declaration, everyone else cheered in the idea of a day just to fool around, discussion turning to talks of what to do with the day, although none could come up with an exact idea. Some had floated around – mock fights, attempting another idea of ramen or other related cooking ideas, swimming – but none were anything the ragtag crew of the Kingdom of Science could come together on. Even the addition of the level-headed and eager-to-explore Ruri brought up nothing new.

This was when Gen perked up with an idea, much to most everyone's surprise and a bit of Senku's chagrin, not knowing exactly what the mentalist could plan. He kept the idea a secret at first, only asking for a bit of help in constructing a platform of sorts – based on a rudimentary design in the dirt that Gen crudely drew with a stick – from both Chrome and Kaseki, using planks of wood found around the land plot. Senku's brow quirked at the drawing, knowing instantly what is was: a stage.

Of course, the stage was Gen's home in the olden days, using it to share his mentalist act with the masses, but this was not related to that, he was sure. After all, if it was just to share his tricks, he didn't need a stage for that, nor would it keep the crew entertained for very long, having seen quite a few of his acts already. So what he had planned for such a thing was a bit beyond his initial understanding, but just as the others were doing, they watched as the two men crafted the platform, setting it up within the shade of two large trees, stepping on it with great care at first to make sure not to break the planks, then with a satisfactory grin, stepped upon it with full weight before turning towards the eager crowd.

With outspread arms and that trademark toothy grin of his, Gen began his show, “As we're all aware, the ancestors of this village passed down to all that came after their passing the Hundred Tales. However, there are many more tales that couldn't be passed down from the generations. Back in the time before the petrifaction, there were millions upon millions of stories around the world. So many that even those numbers just barely scratch the surface.”

He reached into the left sleeve of his outer coat, pulling out a flurry of petals from seemingly nowhere, throwing them towards the crowd, nearly all eyes widening while Suika squealed at the delight of the flora, “So today, I shall share with you some of these tales! These stories, known as fairy tales, were ones known most around the world, filled with all sorts of things to tickle one's fancy and one's imagination. Allow me to be your narrator today and share with you something entirely new~”

With that final flourish of words, he bowed, receiving a lot of loud cheering in return.

“This sounds like it might be fun!” Suika exclaimed, her love for hearing tales of the older world coming forth.

“I wonder how different these might be from the Hundred Tales,” Ruri curiously pondered, “I admit, it'd be wonderful to hear more stories from the ancestors' time.”

“Yeah, this sounds like it's going to be so bad!” Chrome yelled, one fist pumped up into the air.

With the crowd riled up, Gen turned his gaze towards Senku, who looked almost bored with the idea, although that didn't surprise the mentalist one bit. However, a thin brow quirked as he watched Kohaku approach him, his eyes softening as she shared her own excitement over the idea of learning more from the old world, sighing as she reminded him that he should keep to his word that he had given her before smirking and scoffing, waving her off with a casual “yeah, yeah” but ultimately agreed to stay, making the blonde smile brightly.

Of course, he was plotting something to rile up the scientist, wanting to – hopefully – bring forth more of those reactions that was proven his hypothesis about his feelings towards the lioness quite well, but as before, he was taking it cautiously. While the ultimate goal was to find a triggering point towards the next step of his experiment, he knew that, in order to keep his true intentions a secret, he would have to involve the others into his scheme. The idea of storytelling came to mind based on how the others had reacted to dancing a short while ago, how they seemed very much enticed by other ideas of the modern world, and fairy tales had been proven time and time again to be powerful and engaging to those of all ages and genders. He knew he would have to likely dumb down some of his tales, knowing that there terms that they likely wouldn't know, but that was another glory of fairy tales.

As everyone settled down in place around the stage, he pondered which story he should first share. Of course, he knew many fairy tales, but which one should he start off with... as he pondered, he occasionally glanced over the crowd, watching as they all sat down upon the grass, inwardly smirking to himself as Kohaku sat close to Senku's right, a few inches between them, although the woman's attention was towards her own right, where Ruri sat beside her with Suika sitting in the priestess's lap.

Once everyone had sat down and all gazes upon the makeshift stage, Gen took in a breath, settling upon his first story, bowing with one arm extended across his body with the other extended out to the air, “Welcome, fair ladies and gentlemen, to Gen's Fairy Tale Theatre!”

A litany of claps came from the crowd, with exception of Senku, who sat stoic and bored with arms across his chest. Straightening out his form, he raised one hand into the air, pointer finger extended, “For the first story in our act, I present to you, the tale known as Little Red Riding Hood. Now, for our youngest viewer, this tale may be a bit scary, but rest assured, the story does have a good ending.”

He brought a fist to his mouth, clearing his throat before starting his story, “Once upon a time, in a large and beautiful forest, there lied a cottage that was home to a couple and their young daughter. The daughter was a kind and sweet soul, the apple of her parents' eyes, and because of this, her mother had fashioned an adorable red cloak for her to wear. She loved this gift and wore it all the time, and all those that saw her eventually came to call her Little Red Riding Hood.”

He removed the arms from his outer coat, lifting the purple cloth over his head, acting in place of the aforementioned hood. “One day, her mother asked for Little Red Riding Hood to bring a basket of items to her grandmother's home, deep within the heart of the woods, and like the obedient and sweet girl that she was, she agreed, donning the cloak made with her mother's love and carrying the basket upon the crook of her arm, wandering alone into the forest,” he continued, making the motion of lifting up the basket and holding it upon his arm, making the steps in place to act as though he had started the journey.

“As she journeyed through the woods, she had taken a break in a field of flowers, picking a few to share with her beloved grandmother, singing a song that enticed creatures to come to her, wondering what she was doing. The little girl danced and played a bit with the creatures, enjoying their company. However...”

Gen's voice trailed off as his gaze grew dark, removing the cloak from his head, and a sense of dread fell upon the crowd as his smile turned into a sinister snarl. “Her song didn't just entice the gentle woodland creatures, but also that of a terrifying wolf. This wolf looked upon the child with a fierce hunger, his sharp teeth bared as he licked his lips. As she began to continue on her journey, through the shadows of the trees, he followed her, each moment his tummy growing hungrier and hungrier at the thought of devouring the precious child,” he spoke, his voice low and threatening as he brought forth the knowledge of evil to this cutesy tale.

Suika shook on Ruri's lap, reaching for the woman's hand, “How scary!”

“I say... wolves are frightening creatures,” Kinro remarked, “And aren't ones to easily allow their prey escape.”

“Is he really going to eat the little girl!? How cruel is this story!?” Ginro asked, his voice strung out with disbelief, echoing the sentiments of the others.

Gen was pleased that they were all hanging on every word, taking a moment to clear his throat again as the croaky voice irritated the appendage, “When the little girl stopped to take a small break to eat a snack that her mother had packed in the basket just for her, the wolf made his presence known, approaching closer to the girl, but without entirely leaving the shadows of the forest's trees. The wolf was clever with this, as he was biding his time to fully capture Little Red Riding Hood. You see, in this forest, he knew there was a man – known as the Woodsman – that could be lurking anywhere within the confines of the trees, and surely if the wolf was too hasty in his desire to eat the child, the Woodman would certainly hear and come to her aid, and such a thing would mean that the wolf would be slain. And certainly, the wolf did not want that to happen! And so, from the shadows, he struck up a conversation with the child, interrupting her treat, and the child smiled at the creature, not sensing the danger he emitted as those wolfish golden eyes gazed upon her.”

He stood to one side of the stage, his coat held in place around his neck to allow for him to flip it upon his head at a moment's notice, changing the tone of his voice to a deep, monstrous sound, “Good day, Little Red Riding Hood. Tell me, what brings you into the heart of the forest today?”

Flipping the coat upon his head, he turned towards the other side of the stage, his voice becoming squeaky, doing his best impression of Suika, “Good day to you as well! I'm on my way to my grandmother's house. My mother had told me to bring her this basket of goodies to her!”

He continued the conversation between the wolf and child, changing his voice and stage position depending on the person telling this part of the tale.

“My my, such a good little girl! But to send you all alone... aren't you afraid of what could be lurking in the forest? After all, there are terrifying creatures that would love nothing more than to harm you, my dear. And if you were to get lost...”

“I will be alright! I know where my grandmother lives. As long as I stay to this path, I'll reach her before the day is done.”

“Such a sweet child you are. Well then, I wouldn't dawdle; you should make haste towards her home, lest you risk being caught by one of those monsters.”

“I shall, thank you very much!”

Taking the center of the platform again, Gen resumed his normal speaking voice, “With that, the wolf had left the little girl, heading deep into the woods. The girl didn't realize that, in her honest and good way, she had made the mistake of telling the wolf of her task, and so the wolf had began to make his way towards the home of the grandmother. Meanwhile, Little Red Riding Hood finished her snack and continued down the path, occasionally becoming distracted by playing with butterflies that were attracted to her adorable cloak, or by watching as animals would wrestle and play in the tall grass and trees.”

Dark cerulean eyes scanned the crowd as he took a break from speaking, landing on Kinro. He smirked, pointing towards the warrior before making a “come here” motion with one finger. The bespectacled man blinked, confused, but did as told, approaching the stage. Gen lowered his head to reach Kinro's left ear, one hand up to add as a block to keep his words a low secret.

“I need you to stand on the stage and act as the next character. Don't worry, I'll speak for you; just mouth the words and act as though you're holding your spear over your shoulder,” he whispered, Kinro listening intently and nodding as he understood the request, although he couldn't deny his concern for being upon the stage.

Everyone watched as Kinro stepped onto the stage, standing opposite of Gen, his arms in position as if to hold the invisible spear, the motion second-hand to him and not awkward despite not having the physical object in his care. With things set again, the mentalist continued the tale, “As she wandered, eventually she crossed paths with the Woodsman, carrying his hefty axe over his shoulder. The Woodsman was tall and large, and look quite frightening, but the little girl felt no fear. She knew the Woodsman was a guardian of the forest, and so when he stopped to talk with her, she beamed and responded.”

Turning towards the brunette with a small nod and a voiceless “now”, Gen adjusted his voice to a deeper, gruff tone, trying his best to mock the most fitting person he knew to fit the description of the Woodsman, the strongman Magma, covering his lips to allow for Kinro's lip movements to be the more prominent action. A similar act to ventriloquy, Gen mused, when he thought about it more clearly.

“Good day, Little Red Riding Hood,” he spoke, Kinro mocking the words as instructed, “What brings you so far into the forest all alone?”

Changing his voice and removing his hand from in front of his lips, holding close the violet coat around his throat as he had been doing, with a “stop” motion to Kinro to make sure he didn't mouth along while he continued the story, “Good day, Woodsman! I'm on my way to grandmother's house; my mother had asked me to bring this basket of goods to her.”

Another silent “now”, blocking of unneeded lips, Kinro now understanding better what he was meant to do, the story went on, “You're a very good girl. But you shouldn't be out here alone. There are monsters within the trees, and I swore I saw a wolf sprint past here not too long ago.”

With a “stop” and a return to the child's position, “I will be alright! As long as I stay to this path, I'll reach her before the day is done.”

“Very well, my child, but please make haste. Don't stay out for too long, and don't stray from the path at all.” Kinro made the additional motion to raise one hand in the air, a pointed finger extended as if to emphasize the point, fully embracing the role he was given, much to Gen's approval.

“I won't, I promise! Thank you very much, and good day!” A wave, a tilt of the head, followed by walking past Kinro, the other man taking incentive to walk to the other side of the stage to simulate the illusion of the two parting ways.

With the final piece of dialog, Gen returned to his normal tone, turning towards the audience as before, “And with that, Little Red Riding Hood continued down the path through the woods. The Woodsman watched her, worried for her safety. After she was long gone from his sight, he made the choice to follow her, just in case that wolf he saw attempted to attack.”

With a break in the story, Gen took the moment to pat Kinro's shoulder, “Thank you for your assistance. Please give our Woodsman a round of applause!”

And so they did, and Kinro felt a bit of heat to his cheeks at the attention, something out of his usual character, the mentalist remarked to himself, waiting for him to return to his seat in the audience where Ginro and Suika praised him a bit more. Gen thought about what had happened; when it brought Kinro forth, the idea was to give another level of depth to the performance, instead of Gen playing a third role entirely, and given the simplicity of the Woodsman's role this early in the story, as long as he gave proper instruction as he did, any of them should've been able to follow Gen's lead. For the first time being an “actor”, the stoic guardian went above and beyond in his brief moment of fame, and it seemed as though everyone enjoyed seeing him shine. It gave him thoughts for the rest of this story, but also for the next... oh yes, he was certainly coming close to deciding what his next tale will be, now with this knowledge in hand.

“As the two talked, the wolf made his way to the grandmother's home, where the old lady laid in her bed, dozing off,” he continued the tale, all eyes returning to him, “The wolf licked his lips; the journey here had made him even hungrier than before, and now that he was gazing at the elderly woman, he couldn't ignore that rumbling in his stomach any longer.”

This time, Gen pointed to and motioned for Kaseki to come to the stage, the elderly man surprised at the turn of events. Slowly standing and approaching the stage, Gen knelt down to him to whisper the plan for him, just as he had done for Kinro, the craftsman nodding and understanding the idea. Getting atop the platform, Gen handed him the overcoat, folding it over to look more like a bonnet, the sleeves tied under Kaseki's neck, before stepping off of the stage himself and hiding behind one of the trees.

Raising his voice an octave higher to be heard clearly from behind the trunk, the mentalist continued his tale, taking a rock to knock hard on the tree as to not injure his fist, “The wolf knocked upon the door. Grandmother, it's Little Red Riding Hood! Please let me in!”, he spoke, his voice attempting to sound like the little girl's as he transitioned from narration to character.

Kaseki could see the signal of “now” from behind the tree, bringing his hands clenched above his chest as he was told, the mentalist's voice turning gravely and squeaky as he spoke, “Ah, good day, my dear! Come in, come in!”

The signal to “stop” was given, and the man did as told while Gen went back to his normal tone. “The grandmother heard the door open and close, but did not hear the little girl come in. She was confused, calling out for the girl. There was no answer, and so she decided to leave the safety of her bed to investigate. However, in the two steps she had taken from her bed...”

That feeling of dread once again fell over the crowd. Ruri's arms wrapped a bit tighter around the shaking Suika, while Ginro, Kinro, and Chrome watched with bated breath. Senku was the one most amused, despite being bored for most of the story, as he knew what was coming next. Practically every kid back in the day knew this tale, but given this was the first time it was being told in this new world, the reactions of the others was proving to be a bit more enjoyable than he thought it would. He held a smirk, arms crossed over his chest, waiting to see how exactly Gen would make the delivery on this vital scene. He felt a feather-like bump against his right shoulder, and crimson eyes subtly darted over to the reason.

Kohaku had scooted slightly closer to him, her legs folded in and her brows furrowed, a scowl on her face that sold her unease. Ah, so even the lioness can be spooked! Somehow that thought was almost funny, having rarely seen her like this. She didn't seem to realize how close she had got to him, but he didn't comment on it either. Instead, he turned back to the stage, watching as Gen made low growling noises, Kaseki shivering at the noise. All part of the act that the mentalist had told him to put on.

“The wolf, with his ravenous teeth and long claws poised above his head, came out from the shadows...” Gen said, slowly, darkly, carefully, taking one step out from behind the tree, arms extended out as he described, the devilish grin across his lips, pausing before he delivered the final line, “...and DEVOURED HER!”

Kaseki screamed as Gen quickly attacked him, grabbing him by his shoulders and pulling him off of the stage and behind the tree, making guttural noises that sounded terrifyingly real to that of someone loudly eating, and most everyone yelled in reaction to them. Suika was near tears, turning herself to cuddle into Ruri's chest, the woman trying to comfort her. Kohaku had even jumped, this time more harshly clashing against Senku, hands unconsciously grabbing onto his sleeve. He chuckled as she apologized, pushing herself away while a light blush tainted her cheeks. “You actually scared, lioness?” he remarked sarcastically, playfully.

“No! Well... maybe a little bit... I know it's just a story, but wolves are really like that,” she mumbled, “Gen's too good at all of these voices too. Makes it really believable.”

“Heh, I suppose so. That's part of being a mentalist, I guess.”

“Yeah... Since you probably know this story, it does get better, right? Like he said?”

“Hmm...” he pondered, flashing a toothy grin of his own, “Maaaaybe~?”

Kohaku pouted, not liking that answer, and Senku couldn't help but laugh a little more. She turned away from the scientist, wrapping her arms around her knees again, her cheeks still puffed out from her pout. Senku sighed despite his smirk, moving a bit closer to her and placing a hand upon her head, ruffling up her hair. “Don't worry, it gets better,” he reassured her, and while she still was annoyed with his initial response, she allowed herself to relax a little bit.

That little show didn't escape Gen's gaze, stepping out with Kaseki from behind the trees, Kaseki returning the borrowed coat to him, thanking him for his assistance and allowing a moment for everyone to clap and appreciate the craftsman's part in the story. Honestly, he was starting to wonder if anything was going to happen. Every time he looked out into the crowd, Kohaku's expressions were similar to the others – bewilderment, anxiety, jovial – but Senku had about the same expression throughout – bored, annoyed, already predicting every step of the story. Of course, that last part wasn't a surprise, but still, Gen wondered when he might actually seem like he was enjoying himself. It also wasn't a surprise that this moment would be the one that would make Senku light up, as he had to know – just as the mentalist did – that the others would likely have the same reactions that past children hearing the tale for the first time did.

The fact that Senku was acting totally out of his character, ruffling Kohaku's hair as if she was a child, similar to what Kohaku had done towards Suika, also didn't go unseen, and it only gave him more fuel to add to his hypothesis. To see cracks in the walls the seemingly logical Senku place up around himself when it comes to the resident huntress is most amusing, indeed.

However, he couldn't linger on his thoughts for too long; after all, there was still a story that needed to be finished! The climax was approaching, and he knew what he wanted to do. Of course, the hardest part was now trying to convince the most important person he needed for the tale: Suika. The girl was not amused by the turn in the tale, as he figured she probably wouldn't, Ruri having to try and calm her by reminding her that it's just a story, Chrome also jumping in to try and get her to relax. It was a bit cute seeing her looking so scared, but he also had to remember that she was just a little girl and not to laugh at her for it, unlike what Senku had done towards Kohaku. Stepping off the stage, he approached the melon-hatted girl, her head turning back towards him.

“Hello, Suika-chan. I'm sorry that the story is upsetting you so much; I don't mean to frighten you so badly,” he apologized, acting surprisingly sincere compared to his usual apologies, kneeling down to meet her level.

She shook her head, “That's okay... you said it would be scary. B-but you're a really great storyteller, Gen! I'm really liking it, even with the scary parts!”

He laughed, tilting his head towards one side, “Thank you for saying so. But see... I actually need a little help with the ending of the story. Can you help me out, like what Kinro and old man Kaseki did?”

“R-really!?”

That frightened look was replaced with a sense of hyper excitement; of course, Gen knew this was likely to happen. Suika was always eager to help with practically anything asked of her – or for anything not asked of her as well – so if he acted sweet as sugar to the little one, it was highly likely she would forget about her fear in order to do whatever it was she was needed for. The mentalist smiled at her again, reaching out for her hand. Ruri let the little girl go, and Suika stood up, taking Gen's hand, following him to the stage, along with Kinro as Gen asked him to join him again. The two were huddled together as he explained what he needed hem to do, which they picked up on easily enough. As instructed, Kinro walked off to stand a few feet away from the stage, within good earshot and good visual, while Suika was given the coat to act as the hood, standing right off the stage.

All attention back to the stage, Gen prepared for the final act, “The wolf's belly was no longer empty, but he still wasn't full. He knew that soon, Little Red Riding Hood will arrive, and devouring her would be enough to finally settle his stomach. And so, he dressed in the grandmother's clothes and climbed into her bed, covering himself with the blankets, laying in wait for the little girl to finally come to the door.”

He sat upon the stage, making the motions as if he were tucked into the bed, covering his lips and making a subtle nod to Suika. She kicked the stage with the base of her sandal twice, and Gen spoke again, once again, changing his voice to mix the wolf and grandmother together, “Come in, come in!”

“Hello, Grandmother!” Suika mouthed, letting Gen speak for her as he did for the others, “I brought the basket from Mother!”

“Yes, yes, come in, my dear! Come, come to my bedside and let me have a look at you! It has been so long, my child, since we've last seen each other!”

Suika acted accordingly, walking to one side of Gen, still facing the crowd so that they could all see the act that was about to take place. She tilted her head, looking confused as she was instructed, envisioning the “scary wolf in clothes” that he was meaning to play. “Grandmother, what a big nose you have! I don't remember you having such a big nose before,” she mouthed, bringing a small pointer finger to her chin.

“Of course, I've always had this big nose, my child! The better to smell with!”

“What large ears you have too!”

“All the better to hear with, my dear!”

“And what large eyes you have too!”

“All the better to see you with!”

Suika took one small step back, acting as though she's seen something frightening on his face, “And what big, sharp teeth you have too, Grandmother!”

Gen let out the guttural laugh of the wolf, removing his arms from his face and standing in a large huff, throwing back the invisible blanket and yelling, “All the better to EAT YOU WITH!”

Suika screamed as she ran off of the stage, Gen giving chase, his arms high and fingers bared as what he had done to Kaseki, growling and roaring loud as they ran around the crowd, everyone turning to watch them chase one another. Senku wanted to laugh out loud at this pivotal scene; seeing Gen run around like a chicken with his head cut off, especially given his intense dislike for physical labor just as much as Senku did, was almost too ironic. It also didn't help that it was obvious he was not enjoying this part of the scene, that “scary” face of his looking more twisted with instant exhaustion more so than his attempt to look like a starving wolf, making Senku want to laugh more. Still, he held it back, turning back around as the two made it back to the stage, Suika shaking as she had her back up against one of the trees, Gen hovering over her, ready to pounce upon the little girl.

Suika made one loud pound against the stage with her sandal, and Kinro ran onto the stage, lifting up his invisible axe, bringing it down upon Gen, causing him to yelp and fall to the ground as if he were hit in the head with the blade, turning himself to where his face didn't face the audience with one arm over his waist, acting limp as if he had been slain.

Kinro acted breathless, just as Suika did, turning towards each other as they finished the last of the story, eyes glancing down briefly to look for the signals Gen would give to represent each person's turn.

“Thank you, thank you, Woodsman! Thank you for saving my life! But how did you know that I was in trouble?”

“I had followed you, child. I was worried about you going alone, especially with the sight of the wolf. I am sorry that I couldn't arrive fast enough to save your grandmother. But you are safe, and that is most important.”

“Thank you, kind Woodsman. Thank you, thank you!”

“Come, let's take you home.”

Kinro took Suika's hand, leading them both off of the stage, while Gen stood back up, standing in the middle of the stage, an arm extended out to them, “And so, the Woodsman took Little Red Riding Hood home, where her parents hugged her and held her, and showered her with love. While they grieved for the grandmother, they were relieved that their precious child was saved, thanking the Woodsman for bringing her home safely.”

Bringing the arm back in, Gen took a bow, “And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the end of our tale!”

A roar of claps, even from the mostly bored Senku, echoed through the air as Gen stood up straight again, motioning for Kinro, Suika, and Kaseki to stand in front of the stage and take a bow as he did, the three doing so and reveling in the praise. The mentalist stepped off the stage, receiving his coat back from Suika and sliding it back on.

“That was so good! Gen, you're amazing!”

“Thank you, Suika-chan~”

“Yes, that was most entertaining! Even if it was a bit scary there for a bit.”

“Very much so. Thank you for allowing me to play the Woodsman.”

Gen accepted their compliments, as well as the compliments of others that had stood up to stretch their legs and chatter about what had transpired. Senku was more sarcastic with his comments, to which Gen playfully remarked back, adding a slight fuel to the fire that Kohaku had to eventually step in to break the mood. Then the situation changed, Gen now being asked about another tale, and how everyone could get involved.

Throughout the rest of the day, Gen would tell a few more tales, using the villagers as his “puppets” as needed. The second of his tales was Goldilocks and the Three Bears, using Suika as Goldilocks while Chrome, Ruri, and Ginro acted as the bears. He had to modify the tale slightly, not wanting to portray the idea of the bears eating up the poor girl, having her run away without the threat of being eaten, although it didn't seem as though anyone minded the change. Ginro, acting as the papa bear, brought a large amount of enthusiasm to the role, his acting overshadowing some of Gen's narration, something that mildly annoyed the storyteller, but overall everyone seemed to have enjoyed the tale.

The third tale was that of Rumpelstiltskin, having Senku take the role of the mischievous imp, with Kohaku as the miller's daughter, Kaseki as the father, and Kinro as the king. The scientist was not entirely a fan of being dragged into the show, but with encouragement from Kohaku, begrudgingly agreed to play along. It was a perfect choice, Gen internally commented, as Senku's typical demeanor for manipulating others worked well for the main role. And, although he wouldn't admit to it out loud, Senku did find a wee bit of enjoyment himself, playing off of Kohaku's atypical act of timid and desperation, using his own voice for his lines compared to the mouth-acting that everyone else was instructed to use so that Gen could propel the tale forward.

While others watched with intense fervor over the new story, as they had done before, the mentalist was more intrigued by how they acted, sharing the stage with a closeness that wasn't there for the other tales. Of course, he didn't have complete control over the tale this time: Senku, being wholly familiar with all of the stories, was able to take over Rumpelstiltskin's role without much need of guidance, and so he was able to act far more independently compared to the others whom awaited their parts. There was a spark, a dash of chemistry, although he was certain no one else was seeing it the same way as he was. One scene, in particular, garnered the most of Gen's attention: as the daughter faced death for a third time, with nothing more to offer the imp in order for him to spin the straw into gold as requested, Senku laughed as Kohaku looked up at him with faked watery eyes. The laugh seemed almost too dark, and his crimson eyes flickered with that mischievous glint that the character certainly had to have in tales before, kneeling down on the stage with a folded hand reaching out for Kohaku's chin, holding it steady with a thumb against her chin, delivering his demand for the firstborn child as payment for his services. They held the longest of gazes upon one another in the scene, not once blinking or breaking character, waiting for Gen to continue the narration. It was a powerful motion, as he was sure that if it were anyone else but Senku playing the role, it wouldn't play out like this. And for that, the mentalist couldn't help but be inwardly thrilled at the scene.

Kohaku's turn at guessing the imp's name, turning from the desperate, begging mother to the strong and confident woman that knew she had bested her foe, having learned of his name as was the game in order to keep the child she bargained with before, was equally as thrilling, as she stepped within an inch of Senku's personal space, that feline grin of her stretched magnificently across her face, one finger extended and poking at his chest. Before Gen could even say a word, she had taken to saying the line herself – “Is your name Rumpelstiltskin?” – playing it off with every ounce of sass and vigor that her expression shared. Senku acted the temporary fool, laughing despite the frustration of his character's name being called out, rushing off stage as the narration finished stating that the imp had disappeared, finally defeated, bringing the story to an end and the audience into enthusiastic applause. The stars of the show glanced at one another only once during the praise, saying more than enough to one another than what words needed to do, and the mentalist had to keep his own delight in check, lest he let on his little experiment to the public.

As the night crept up, there was one more story to be had, this time with the mood set by a large fire: Beauty and the Beast. Gen took the role of the Beast, doing well to use the shadows to play off the mysterious energy of his character, using Ruri as the goddess that curses him, Kaseki as the unfortunate father to the titular Beauty, and – to much surprise – Kohaku as the lovely love interest. Chrome was mostly surprised at the reversal of roles, figuring that Ruri would be better as Beauty than “the gorilla”, earning him a hit to the head, but it wasn't as though that thought was entirely his own. However, Gen was more intrigued by Senku's reaction. The scientist tried to act unattached as usual, but they both knew of the tale and its many forms: in the end, the result was the same, in which Beauty's love saves the Beast, and the idea of Kohaku acting out a role where she was to fall for Gen didn't sit well in his mind, and the flicker of irritation and warning that came across those crimson orbs as he met dark cerulean only made the mentalist smile more gleefully, knowing that his purposeful choice in actors was doing exactly what he wanted.

The story started off without a hitch: narration telling the tale of the selfish prince turning away the ugly beggar, turning into the goddess that cursed him into a beast until he could love and be loved by another before his twenty-first birthday, lest he remained a beast forever. Ruri delicately twirled about the stage as she cast her spell, using a twig in place of her magical wand, while Gen moved around in erratic fashion, using his coat and a quickly-made muddy paste to add additional markings to his skin to give off the cursed, monstrous look he was attempting to give off. He also used a bit of Chrome's color-changing chemicals to toss into the fire, setting the mood even further related to the cursed transformation, earning many “ooo”s and “ahs” from the awaiting audience. Even Senku was a bit impressed with Gen's ability to set the scene, although given his line of work it wasn't entirely surprising.

It progressed through the paces as needed: Beauty's father departure for supplies in another town, the promise to bring his daughter back a rose as she wanted, him becoming lost and coming across the cursed castle, the father meeting the Beast after the attempt to steal one of the delicate blooms, the deal of allowing the father to go free if Beauty agrees to take his place... Kohaku's arrival onto the stage with Gen was what Senku watched with the most intensity, the huntress using a borrowed blanket as a cloak, watching as Gen got up close to her, Kohaku attempting to look scared of the creature he was supposed to be but also firm in convictions to honor the deal made. To see him so close to her, one hand brushing through her bangs, brought forth an unsettling feeling of acid in Senku's stomach, the feeling growing more and more as the story went on, documenting the changes in the relationship between Beauty and the Beast.

Gen sitting close to Kohaku as she pretended to read from a book to him, his chin hovering above her shoulder... her act of teaching him manners and how to act with more kindness... a delicate and beautiful dance, the blanket now turned into a wrapped dress around the lioness' frame... all the while, Kohaku fully took on Beauty's role, and each smile she would show to Gen's character almost made Senku sick. This was a story and they were only faking their roles, but still... he didn't like seeing it, although he still wasn't fully sure as to why. Or rather, he did know, but didn't allow himself to think of it as a possibility, finding the notion highly illogical...

Then came the final scene, in which the Beast laid dying of a broken heart, afraid that Beauty – having been allowed to leave the castle to see her father – would never return now that she was finally free from his imprisonment. Kohaku burst upon the stage, crying out towards the befallen Gen, acting as though she was truly crying, lifting his upper half to rest upon her lap. As he spoke, grateful to see his beloved Beauty one last time, Gen made a subtle motion for Kohaku to leave a small kiss upon his cheek, a visual sign of the love being returned as needed for the tale. Senku's eyes widened a momentary fraction as she leaned down, leaving the small peck as requested. He wanted to turn away at that point; the moment, no matter how small or important to the scene, was enough to really make his skin crawl and his stomach bubble. How dare he pull such a stunt!

Finally, the story ended in a blaze of colored flames, shedding the muddy paste and revealing the prince's form, explaining the curse to the stunned Beauty, before taking her hand and pulling her towards him in the start of a dance, doing a few steps to the end narration before ending with a twirl and a bow towards the audience, once again being met with a roar of applause. Gen thanked Kohaku for her diligent work as his leading lady, leaving a gentlemanly kiss to the back of her hand, much to her surprise and Senku's chagrin, before letting go of the appendage and jumping off of the stage, receiving praise for his work today before excusing himself for the evening to eat, drink, and sleep, not before sending one more knowing and teasing glance towards the scientist in response to his sharp glare.

However, before Senku could make an attempt to confront the mentalist on whatever his game was with his stunts, Kohaku appeared before him, looking a bit tired from the day but overall smiling and delighted.

“What did you think of today, Senku? Was it fun?”

He sighed, turning away from the sight of Gen going towards the observatory, looking down upon the waiting blonde, smirking at her, “Yeah, I guess so.”

\------------

As the evening turned to late night, eventually everyone parted ways, thoroughly entertained by the day's events and surely the images they had developed in their heads certainly going to play around in their dreams tonight. However, Senku was not tired as what many of his companions were. While he did enjoy his day off, he still couldn't end the day without his thoughts turning back towards the work still laying ahead of him. He contemplated going back to the observatory to grab his skins and charcoals, but thought against it.

Gen had not descended to join the remaining members of the Kingdom of Science that were still around the fire, and Senku knew that, if the two were to meet eye to eye again this night, there may be words shared. He wanted to focus on his science in order to not deal with the growing frustrations and sensations that he was feeling when it came to the mentalist and his supposed attraction towards Kohaku, and definitely did not want to deal with what was starting to come of his own feelings towards the lioness in the process.

So, he settled himself a bit away from the fire, still able to bask in its light but not so much its heat, with a stick in hand, scribbling out calculations in the dirt. Most of his work, he knew, was just to keep his hands and mind busy, finding comfort in all of the numbers and lines. He would eventually recall and write these down in his logs, but for now, just doing them was enough.

“... Guess you couldn't resist yourself, huh?”

His hand stopped, lowering slightly. He scoffed, turning towards the source of the voice, “I gave you the entire day, lioness.”

She chuckled, brushing off his nickname for her, sitting down next to him, “That's true. So I guess I'll be lenient.”

“How kind of you.”

They fell back into their quiet habits: Senku doing his work, Kohaku watching with curious eyes. She was, despite her teasing, glad to see him back at work. She still worried for him, worried about that wall he may hit, but she was glad that today he heeded to her advice, took the day to do something beyond his usual routine, and that was more than enough. Still, she also wondered how he was even able to think about calculations after today's events. As she sat watching him, she felt herself growing more and more tired, all of her playing around to the stories finally taking its toll on her body and mind. Still, she didn't desire to fall asleep yet. She wanted to sit with him a little while longer, watch his work a little more, maybe even talk a bit more.

“Hey, Senku?”

“Yeah?”

“What's your favorite fairy tale?”

He stopped moving the stick around in the dirt, brows quirked and a glimmer of surprise flashed across his irises. Head turned slightly towards her, taking in for the first time the heavy weight of exhaustion on her face, but also the eager waiting for his response. Obviously Gen's stories sparked a literary curiosity to her mind, and so it didn't surprise him all that much that she would ask more about them. But to ask him if he had a favorite? Somehow, he didn't expect that.

Placing his instrument down onto the ground, he brought a hand up to his chin, fingers curling against it as he went into thought about his answer. “Hmm... to be honest, fairy tales were never my thing, even as a child. But... I suppose there was one I enjoyed more over others. Alice in Wonderland.”

“Alice in Wonderland?” Kohaku repeated.

He nodded, “Yeah. I think, if I have to pick one, that'd be it. The strange and mystical world of it always did stick in my mind. It was also really popular for a lot of different entertainment. Beyond just the book, there were movies and songs and other creations based on the tale.”

“Can you tell me the story?”

Once again, that glimmer of surprise washed over him, although it didn't remain for too long before he chuckled. “It's quite long,” he remarked, “Are you sure you want to hear it tonight?”

Kohaku nodded vigorously, curling her legs up against her frame and arms wrapping around her knees, chin resting upon the bony connectors as she awaited to hear the tale. Once again, he chuckled, picking up the stick and erasing his work, giving him a fresh slate to use to illustrate his tale as need be, “So... it starts out in a garden, in which our lead, Alice, is falling asleep as she listens to her older sister read from a book...”

For the longest time, they sat as Senku spun the tale and Kohaku eagerly listened. She was instantly taken in by his narration and illustrations, imagining the world that Alice was exploring. Such a world of nonsense and oddities, of strange treats that make you grow or shrink, of chasing coat-wearing rabbits and smoking caterpillars... for someone like Senku, whose mind was filled and focused on the logical and scientific, to hear that this tale was his favorite was likely just as surprising as the story itself!

She was so enthralled in the tale itself that she didn't realize how she started to drift off, so soothed by Senku's voice, her body loosening and relaxing as the sweet temptation of slumber began to overtake her. Senku didn't notice either, focusing on his story and drawings, thinking that she was paying attention just as closely as she had been. “So, the Queen approaches Alice and the cards, asking which one of them were responsible for painting the roses-- huh!?” he went on, stopping as he felt a sharp weight against his shoulder.

His head turned to see Kohaku's sleeping face, her lips agape and her body now unwound from its initial position, one arm limply to her side as the other rested across her lowered legs. For a moment, he was annoyed with the sudden intrusion into his personal bubble, but it passed with a sigh, his lips in a straight line as lids and brows lowered a fraction as he continued his gaze.

This woman... she always found a way to break through all of his walls and guards. Like the prideful and tenacious lioness he named her after. Senku was always good at keeping a distance between himself and others. Of course, there were exceptions – his old man, Taiju, and Yuzuriha – but even then he made sure to still keep up a wall to keep them from being able to destroy the bubble he so carefully crafted. To keep from having connections that could entirely distract him from the path of science. But yet, this one woman has found a way through. If it were anyone else – well, perhaps except for Suika, given that he wouldn't want to do such a thought to the child – they'd be finding themselves crashing to the hard ground with a sharp push and a harsh amount of screaming. But Kohaku... he couldn't get himself to do such a thing to her.

Not with how peaceful she looked. How she seemed so comfortable resting against him. Were her lashes always this long? How exactly did she fall into this deep of a sleep so fast? He was almost envious of that ability. It wasn't as though he had a problem with finding sleep most nights, but it never came this deep this quickly. He chuckled as he swore she made a small snoring noise, her nose wrinkling for a moment.

He began to yawn, bringing up his unblocked arm up to cover his mouth, the other hand gently tossing the stick he was using to the ground a bit away from them. Sleep was starting to sound good to him as well, and with the night stretching on and on, he supposed it was time that he shut his eyes until the morning dawn. But in that came the problem. How could he retire to his usual place of slumber without disturbing Kohaku in the process? With how deeply she was sleeping, he was certain that he could easily lower her off of him, allowing him the chance to leave and retire to the observatory. However... a part of him was not liking that option. They have both slept outside many times, so it wasn't as though leaving her to curl into the grass and dirt was a cruel thing to do. But it was leaving her that sounded cruel. She was so unguarded in this moment, and he almost felt the regret he would certainly feel if she would awake in the morning to find herself alone. The thought shifted to the idea of laying her upon the ground, but then sleeping not far from her. She wouldn't be alone, and he would be able to slumber without the odd pang guilt. Like how it was on the first night after he had rescued her from the fallen tree.

But yet, as he continued to watch her sleep so peacefully, so unaware of her proximity to him, so totally unaware of the thoughts running through his head... he sighed, trying to ignore the extra beating in his chest. He turned slightly in order to better support her as they both slowly laid upon the ground, her body reacting unconsciously to the movement without waking her up entirely from her slumber, a small moan as she readjusted, curling herself up more against Senku's stretched out form, her head nuzzling itself more into the crux of his collarbone and shoulder. He sighed again, laying an arm up under his head as the other, now effectively pinned beneath her, wrapped itself very loosely around her upper torso. He was grateful for the comfortable temperatures, not feeling the need to wrap himself up in a blanket, and while the flat ground wasn't the most comfortable thing to sleep upon, he was willing to make due.

Eyes lowered back to her, now only really able to see the top of her blonde locks, and the faint whispers of a smirk stretched across his lips before he took in one relaxing breath, closing his eyes and allowing for sleep to finally overtake him for the evening.

… The dawn seemed to come almost too early, or at least that was Senku first thought as his eyes opened to the bright, morning glow that peeked through the trees. Although, he mused that perhaps it felt that way due to how late it was before he finally went off to sleep. He brought a hand up his face, rubbing his eyes of the crust that stuck to his lashes, yawning as he started to stir more and shaking off the slumber.

Although he wasn't able to stir much, instantly remembering and feeling the barricade against his side. Kohaku was still sleeping next to him, turned to face him, her body more stretched out than the night before, one arm curled up and resting upon the ground between the two beings, the other over her waist. One leg was bent in slightly, the sandal-clad foot resting against her other ankle. She had pushed herself a bit further away from Senku's frame during the night, her head more laying on his arm now, but overall she remained much the same as she was last night when she first fell asleep.

He didn't know why, but he was glad that she was still there. He didn't realize that, in all of his thoughts last night, she could've been the one to leave him alone to sleep. She could've woke up at any time, realized the unusual position they were in, and either disturbed his slumber with her insane screaming or just walked away in order to avoid potential embarrassment of what happened. Yet, here she was, sleeping away like a cat bathing in the sunlight, the bright light not doing a thing to tell her to finally reopen her eyes. And he couldn't help but chuckle and smile at her.

Then came the somber, uneasy thumps in his chest, reminding him of his thoughts from last night. Not only that, but of the past week as well. He's found himself completely off-guard by his own mind when it came to her, and he wasn't sure what to really think or make of the feelings that were starting to boil up. There was no denying that Kohaku was special to him – she was a friend, an ally, a confidant – but now there was something starting to brew and muddy up the waters, blurring the lines between those mutual feelings and the desire for something far more. That something being a certain four-letter word that was the bane of his existence and his scientific path.

He turned to face her, a shaky hand reaching out to carefully, cautiously, brush back wisps of her bangs from her face, tucking it in behind her ear. She didn't seem to react to the faint touch of his fingers against her skin, and he released a breath he didn't know he was holding back. His curled appendages moved from the back of her ear to her face, a knuckle brushing over her soft cheek, from the base of her eye sockets to her chin. She made a small hum, but not stirring more than that. However, the hum was enough for his hand to shoot back from her, the undesirable feeling of fear momentarily rearing its ugly head. Fear... that wasn't some Senku was used to. It wasn't a feeling he was unfamiliar with, but this was the first that he felt it in this way. He was afraid she would wake up and question why he was staring at her with a wistful gaze, why he was touching her in the most gentle way they were both sure he had ever physically interacted with her. But more so, he was afraid of himself, of what he was feeling, what he was doing.

Curse that damn mentalist and his flirtations. If the manipulative man wasn't so keen on his games with Kohaku, Senku was certain that these feelings and thoughts would've remained thoroughly buried. But seeing the close interactions between the two brought them out from the dirt. He never gave thought to the idea of anyone seriously wanting to pursue something more romantic with the resident huntress, but Gen was now showing that, yes, someone could and now Senku hated both that fact and Gen for it. Jealously... another feeling the scientist wasn't used to. Never once that he could recall experiencing this sort of feeling. Maybe over someone else's accomplishments or equipment in comparison to his own scientific achievements, but never over another person. But that's what this was. He was jealous. And he hated it. Downright hated it. It was, like that four-letter word, another bane of his existence. It wasn't a feeling he desired or wanted, but yet here it was.

She moaned softly, shifting enough to curl herself a bit closer to his form. He stiffened for the moment, relaxing once she stopped moving, once again releasing a held breath, crimson orbs reflecting the change from anxiety to calm. All of his cries of hate and anger, and yet here he still was. Laying next to her with a rushing heartbeat, eyes unable to look away, thoughts flowing about her. Her face, her heart, her mind, her personality, just her... and wondering what she may ultimately think of him as well.

A thought came to his mind that he couldn't help but chuckle at, as he recalled the fairy tales of yesterday. A thought of her that was reminding him of one of his least favorite tales: Sleeping Beauty. He loathed that particular tale. A witch's curse because she was slighted over being invited to a party? Hapless fairies raising a baby? Falling in love at first sight and having no other reason to love someone, and yet the prince is the only one that could awaken the princess with a supposed true love's kiss? There were more plot holes and unrealistic ideals than what should be plausible, although he supposed that's why it was called a fairy tale. There was no way such a thing could ever happen in the real world.

Although... perhaps there was one thing about it that could be true. Kohaku did look – if he dared to admit it – beautiful as she slept like this. Although she always did have that bit of natural beauty about her. Perhaps it was because of her lineage – she is clearly a descendant of the late Lillian Weinberg, one of the most beautiful and talented musicians of his time – but it was also just her in general. She didn't need things like make-up to look this way; she was just purely and completely herself. And that was, in his mind, beautiful. If the princess looked anything like Kohaku, perhaps if the circumstances behind it were entirely different, he wouldn't be able to blame the prince for wanting to awaken her with a kiss.

His fingers rested faintly against her cheek, thumb gently brushing the skin, subtly coaxing her head upward an extra degree. Awaken with a kiss... how silly a thought that was, and yet...

Senku's eyes began to slowly drift close, shifting his head as he leaned in towards her. He was quivering, but she didn't react. How could she not? He was certainly shaking fiercer than an earthquake right now. But she still slept, unaware of him being an inch away from her parted pink lips, an inch away from her prince trying to awaken her from her sleeping spell.

He stopped there, unable to complete the seal as he desired. His senses were returning; he couldn't do this. He was no prince, she was no princess, and this was no fairy tale. Removing his hand from her face, he turned and laid on his back, groaning in disbelief at what he was about to do. Hand brushed through his bangs and hair, teeth gritting for a moment as he wrestled with self-loathing. There was no reason at all for any of this, and now those feelings of hate and anger were turning towards himself.

Carefully, he pulled his trapped arm from underneath Kohaku's form, the huntress making a loud, irritated groan, her face wrinkling to reflect it, although she didn't open her eyes. Senku sighed, sitting up with one leg bent inward and elbow resting on it, hand against his forehead. He needed to get away. He felt guilty with that thought, but that didn't matter. He had to get away from her. Needed to refocus on something else. His gaze turned towards her, then away with another grit of his teeth.

He stood up, brushing off his clothes of dust and dirt, clenching his fists as he glanced at her once more, turning away sharply as he stepped away from her, stopping after a few steps as he heard her stir and groan, turning around to seeing her starting to sit up, yawning and rubbing her eyes as he did.

“Mmm...” she hummed, her hands going up through her hair, checking the tightness of the rope that held her hair, looking around to see Senku standing not far from her, him now turned around to face her, “Ah, good morning, Senku.”

He flinched at her smile, her innocent smile. She had no idea what was so close to happening; if she did, she certainly wouldn't be smiling. Still, he couldn't allow her to be alarmed. He had to keep himself in check, showing no signs of his inner struggle and guilt to her. He smirked, chuckled, “Good morning, lioness. About time you woke up.”

As the two conversed – Kohaku expressing her distaste for his nickname for her, Senku brushing it off with his usual dry wit – Gen watched them from the observatory entrance, chin resting on the palm of his hand, arm propped against the opening. He was smirking, clearly entertained by what had happened. Although he couldn't make out all of the finer details, he could see that Senku was enthralled by Kohaku's sleeping form. The way he touched her face, that delicate and soft way that a lover would... it was clear to the mentalist that the scientist was falling for the lioness.

He chuckled to himself, pushing away from the entrance and standing up, taking the steps to climb down the ladder to the ground. A new day was starting, and his mind was already spinning new ideas. He knew a confession was on the tip of Senku's tongue, but now how to gently and subtly push him towards one? Oh, the possibilities...


	4. Truth or Dare

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so... usually don't do extra notes, but really want to for this one!
> 
> 1) While I've been writing this, I realized that I never fully established a good time line of this. My idea is that this takes place after Ruri is healed, but before Homura and Hyoga attacked the village. So it's still kinda early in the series, but the ideas of where exactly the battles start is pushed back. So I put up the canon divergent tag now that I'm more clear on exactly it works. I also admit I did kinda forget a few details at the start related to the observatory. But I really don't know what else to exactly call Chrome's rock hut, and technically you can observe over the camp from it, so I just said "screw it" and will continue to call it an observatory.
> 
> 2) I think I got about one more chapter left to the story! It depends on whether or not I want to split the finale into two chapters. My goal is to get this completed by the end of October, as November I'll be busy with NaNoWriMo - which, look out for the end of November for that story, as it's going to be a very long Dr. STONE fic! - and I'd feel really bad making people wait until December to get this completed when it's so close. Please look forward to it!

Gen noticed a change in Senku's demeanor when it came to Kohaku in the days after the storytelling event. It was rather subtle, something that no one else seemed to had picked up on, but it was still a change nevertheless.

The first of these changes were on how long his gaze lingered on her whenever she would walk by or chatter with him. There was a flicker there that didn't seem to register with anyone else in how those crimson orbs would stay, and how they were soften as she grew distant from him, as if he was already missing her being within arm's length of him. Of course, there were times before this where his gaze would remain on hers, but it was never as wistful as these glances were.

The second of these changes were in some of the ways he spoke to her. He was more playful with her, as if he was trying to, in his own way, flirt with her. They were little jokes and comments, things he'd occasionally make as it was, but they were made only when it seemed like it was only the two of them. The smirks, the smiles, the laughs, the blushing. Kohaku didn't seem to think there was something more to it, in the way she would interact with him as she normally would. Although there was one private interaction between them that he had caught from a distance that was the most intriguing of that sort. A sunset private moment, believing they were away from all prying eyes, where the mentalist watched as Senku leaned closer to Kohaku, making some sort of comment he couldn't quite make out, but it was something enough to make the huntress blush profusely, giving him a flustered push before turning and stomping away with a pout. The way that Senku laughed to himself, smirking and watching as she stormed off, despite the signs that he, too, might had been blushing, made Gen smirk himself. He wouldn't inquire on what transpired, but again, he logged it in his mind as another change in the scientist when it came to his lioness.

The third was one that had a more prominent audience, and was the only one that actually did cause some sort of alarm in more ways that one. What started out was simple enough: Kohaku was tasked with grabbing and transporting a mass amount of wood for one of the experiments. However, after one of these transports, she complained very loudly of a pain in her right hand. Suika was the first to pay attention to her, noticing how Kohaku was acting, quickly calling for Senku to come and help.

Of course, the little girl made the issue sound worse than it was, something that she would be gently chided for later, but the look of panic on Senku's face as he gazed upon Kohaku's pained expression and how she was holding her hand said more than words could. Eyes wide and dilated, the breathless run he made to her side, the way he grabbed at her hand and held it, and the relief he displayed when he saw how minor the issue was, considering the initial response.

What caused the issue was simple: a large splinter. Something that could be worse if left alone and not removed, but also mostly easy to remedy. Senku sighed heavily as he took in notice of what the issue was, chiding Suika and accepting her apology, before taking Kohaku by the wrist towards the lab, ordering Chrome to grab some things from inside as they sat down outside. With Suika and Chrome watching close and everyone else nearby, Senku was very careful with his work, trying to dig and pull out the splinter that had made its way deep inside of her palm. Kohaku cringed, making small almost-whimpering noises, trying to keep still as to not make the pain or Senku's work any harder than necessary.

“She's going to be okay, right Senku?” Suika asked with worry, not used to seeing Kohaku in pain.

“Yeah, she'll be fine. Splinters can be a real pain, but she's in good hands,” Senku reassured, smiling at no one in particular, although the words were meant just as much for Kohaku as it was for the melon-hatted child.

“Mmph... yeah, I'll be okay, Suika. Thank you for worrying so much, but don't be, alright?” the huntress reassured the girl, not making the motion to rub her head as she usually would, instead letting out a loud “OW” as the splinter was finally pulled from her palm.

“Hey, don't pull back yet!” Senku critiqued, “I got to disinfect it still, and check for any other ones.”

“Sorry...”

She remained as still as she could while Senku carefully went over her hand, caressing and pressing to see if anything else came from the initial wound or could be made visible through the skin. Gen noticed how intense his face was as he examined her appendage, relieved when he noticed nothing more stuck in the skin and how clean the wound seemed otherwise, and how guilty his eyes appeared when he poured some disinfecting alcohol onto it, his voice trying to sound more sympathetic than guilty as he apologized to her as she let out a loud scream in reaction to the burning sensation. While to onlookers, he seemed to be as calm and collected as ever, the mentalist clearly saw beyond that. If it were anyone else, Senku would not have reacted in the ways that he had. But it was Kohaku that was injured, even with something minor, over something he had asked of her to do, and that sparked more of a reaction than what anyone else would receive.

Finally, with the wound sufficiently cleaned, Senku did a light wrap around her hand, making sure it was covered and couldn't risk particles getting into the wound and risk infection. This part he did with as much care as he did with trying to pull the wood from her hand, trying not to wrap it too tight as to interfere with her daily activities. If Gen didn't know any better, with everything he had done, Senku looked like he was actually breaking a sweat, but he was smart to keep that comment to himself. For the moment, at least.

“There. I'll need to check on it again later, but I think you should be good now,” Senku said while releasing Kohaku's hand, allowing her to flex and move it to make sure the bandage wasn't a hindrance as well as making sure it stayed wrapped despite her use.

The blonde was happy, relieved that the pain was gone, smiling brightly at the scientist, “Thank you so much, Senku!”

He chuckled, brushing off her thanks with his usual indifference, but there was a heat to his cheeks as she flashed that smile at him that no one seemed to see but Gen. Everything went back to normal after that – Senku to what he was originally working on, Kohaku giving Suika the reassurance she wanted before carefully assisting with what else she needed to do with the wood – but he could see that lingering gaze that Senku had on Kohaku and her hand, as well as that heavy sigh that he was grateful that she wasn't seriously hurt as he initial thought.

Gen was privately delighted in seeing such cracks in Senku's walls, but at the same time, he was also disappointed that no one else seemed to be noticing it. Or, if they were, they weren't saying anything about it. Of course, he had debated about bringing up the subject, but he honestly didn't know who to trust to keep the idea of romance between them secret as to not alert the two in question to such potential rumors. There was also the idea of someone just trying to accuse the mentalist of wanting to cause trouble – something he couldn't actually deny as a valid thought – and that also leading to a fallout that he didn't desire. And so, Gen kept all of these observations to himself, taking careful steps to ensure that nothing disturbed the natural progression on how things were evolving, pondering what to do to, perhaps, push the development a bit more, hitting his own walls more often that not in terms of trying to not dissolve the current state of the Kingdom of Science as well.

“Hey, Gen, what kind of things did kids used to do for fun?”

The mentalist broke from his bored reverie, his mind filled with thoughts of his plans but also on how tiresome the menial tasks for the day was, by his usual partner in work, Suika. He blinked, momentarily thrown off by the sudden question, “What do you mean, Suika-chan?”

“Well, all of us kids will run around and play things like tag or hide-and-seek, but what else did kids used to do?” she explained further, “Sometimes it gets boring playing the same games, so I think it'd be fun if we learned more about what kids used to do for fun so that way we can do it too!”

He hummed, tapping a finger on his chin, “Well, most kids in my time spent a lot of time on electronic things, like video games and cell phones. They really didn't play outside as much as what you and the other children get to do now. Although there were still plenty that did play a variety of outdoor activities. Let's see...”

The precocious child hung anxiously to Gen's words, and he chuckled at her eager smile. “Well, there was jump rope. It was a game where you would take a large rope and either by holding it in both hands or by two others, you move it up and around your body, and when it approaches your feet, you have to jump over it. Hence where the name came from,” he started this explanation, “If you didn't and you missed the jump, you could land flat on your face and injure yourself, so it would take a lot of skill to master it. But once you did, there was a lot of other games you could play with it, such as double-dutch in which you had to jump over two swinging ropes at the same time.”

Suika wasn't too thrilled with the sound of such activity, “That sounds really tough! I'm not sure if I could do it. I think I'd trip too much trying. Or the rope would get stuck on my melon and then I couldn't get it off.”

“Hmm... well, that is possible. But that's why practice makes perfect, Suika-chan! Although, I can't say I'm very good at such a thing myself, so perhaps I'm not the right person to give such a lecture,” he replied with a bit of a sheepish laugh.

With another hum, Gen thought about his next game, grabbing a stone from the ground and making an image in the dirt as he explained, “There was also hopscotch. You draw ten squares, sort of like this, with one or two on top of one another – and of course, on a larger scale – then you throw a rock towards one of the squares from one side. You then jump on one foot – two, if you land on the squares that are next to each other like this – counting as you hop to the square your rock landed on. And that's it! You usually play this with multiple people, seeing who can throw and jump the farthest.”

This one seemed more enjoyable to the onlooking girl, “Ooo, that sounds like fun! A lot of the kids would like that too! Can we play that now, Gen? You can even show me how it's done so I can show the kids later! Pretty please?”

The mentalist blanched for a second, “R-right now? And with me? Well, uh...”

Suika's hands came up and clasped in front of her, smiling her ever cutest as she tried to convince Gen to participate. He sighed, smiling in defeat; Suika always has a way to wrap everyone around her little fingers, unable to resist her adorable charms.

“Alright, alright. I give up. We'll take a break and try it out,” he replied, patting her melon head as Suika let out a small cheer.

Work was placed aside and the two moved to a different part of the base, where there was more dirt and space to set up a grid. With a stick, Gen designed the basic look of a hopscotch course, with a basic number etched into each square. Although Suika didn't recognize the written numbers, Gen reassured her of what they were, handing her one stone while holding another one for himself. He made a line a little bit away from the grid, motioning for her to stand behind it, joining her after dropping the stick.

“Alright, so what you want to do is lob the stone like this,” he said, showing her a soft, underhanded throw without letting go of the rock, “You don't want to put a lot of force on it, so you don't throw it past the grid or at someone else. Just enough to get it to bounce and stay on one of the squares. Like so~”

He threw it as he explained, the rock landing on the seventh square. “It landed on seven. So now I have to hop over to seven, pick up my rock, then move out of the way for you to play. Watch how I do it,” he explained, lifting up one leg as he jumped onto the first space, keeping it up as he went towards the second, placed both down on three and four before lifting his leg again to hop onto the fifth square, placing them both down on the sixth and seventh spaces, grabbing the rock and moving out of the way, “See, just like that! It's rather easy!”

“Okay, I got it!” Suika exclaimed, holding the rock in both hands for a moment before lobbing it with one hand, landing on the fifth square.

She mocked exactly what Gen had done, doing her little hops and jumps as she reached the designated square, grabbing her stone and standing off to the side next to him. “There you go!” Gen praised, “Good job, Suika-chan~”

“Thank you, Gen! That's a lot of fun!”

“Hey, what are you two doing over here?” came in an outside voice.

The two turned their attention towards Kohaku, Ginro, and Kinro, whom had joined them more closely, with Senku and Chrome looking over but hadn't made the effort to approach yet. “Gen is teaching me about things kids used to do for fun,” Suika explained, “He just taught me how to play hopscotch!”

“Hopscotch?” Kinro asked, “Such an odd name.”

“I want to give it a try!” Ginro exclaimed.

Gen handed him his rock with a relieved smile, “Go right on ahead; take my place.”

With the rock handed off, the monochromed-hair man stood off to the side, watching as Suika taught the new arrivals the game, his eyes occasionally glancing over towards Senku and Chrome – now joined by Kaseki – as they were watching everyone else interact and play the childhood activity. He was very much amused by Ginro and Kinro's attempts – Ginro obviously more loose and willing to play what it was compared to the stiff and stoic Kinro – although it was when Kohaku played, he was more curious on if Senku was going to finally walk over to examine what was going on. Just as she finished up her jumps, reaching square ten compared to the lower numbers everyone else reached, sure enough, the other members of the Kingdom joined them, the curiosity of what was happening too much for them to avoid.

“Well, this is something I hadn't seen in years,” Senku remarked with a chuckle, “Leave it to you to re-introduce such a childish game, mentalist.”

Gen shrugged his shoulders with a signature smirk, “Suika-chan wanted to know about the games of our past, and asked me to play one of them with her. I couldn't resist her charm.”

Another chuckle came as response; Senku couldn't exactly argue against that claim, given how even he had moments where he gave into the child's innocent desires. With one arm on his hip and the other up to twirl a finger within his ear, the man let out a partly-annoyed sigh, “Still, once again, you've found a way to weasel everyone out of doing their work.”

“Only for a small break, dear Senku~ There's nothing wrong with that!”

“... I suppose not.”

“Senku, Senku! Why don't you try it?” Suika interrupted their conversation, skipping over and holding out her stone to him.

It was now Senku's turn to blanch at the request, but quickly regained composure, slightly glaring at the rock, “Eh? I don't think so.”

Suika seemed dejected by the rejection, her arm lowering as her smile turned into a frown, “Aww... why not?”

“Yes, Senku, why not?” Gen asked, his face twisting into his usual teasing and sharp toothy grin.

Suddenly most eyes – with exception of Ginro and Kaseki, who were playing a round of the game for themselves, Ginro clapping his hands as Kaseki slowly and awkwardly hopped up to the third square – were on Senku, and the scientist was both alarmed and annoyed. It wasn't as though he hated the game – he played it at least once as a child, just to say he did it more than anything else – but hopscotch was a game for children, not young adults. Not to mention it was laborious in a way that he didn't enjoy. There was no real purpose to participating, and why bother getting yourself all worked up over something like that? He groaned, eyes narrowing as he tried to resist the urge to yell at everyone to get back to work, as he knew that his deflection of the subject would probably make things worse.

“Oh, come on, dear Senku~ I dare you to try it just once~” Gen sing-songed, challenging him in the most adolescent way possible, and Senku groaned again as he sent a death glare over to the mentalist.

“Ugh... fine. Once.”

He finally relented, knowing that he really had no way out of this mess. Even if Gen didn't “dare” him, certainly Suika would turn up the heat by starting to cry or Kohaku would insist on him doing it as part of taking a break. At least one time wouldn't be so bad; the infliction of physical drain wouldn't hit very hard with just one round, and afterward, he could at least bargain better with forcing everyone to go back to their tasks. Grabbing the rock from Suika's hand, he stood behind the line in the dirt, Ginro and Kaseki now standing aside with the rest of the crowd. He lobbed the rock over to the sixth square – just as he wanted to – hopping as he counted the squares, landing as he needed to on the square, grabbing the rock as he tried to keep the embarrassment of the situation from being etched onto his face, handing the rock back to Suika.

Everyone applauding him for participating didn't help his cause, his face turning into a grimace, “Yeah, yeah... there, hopefully everyone is happy now. Can we drop this now?”

That did seem to sedate the crowd, but for Gen, it actually started to give him a most devilish idea. Lifting an arm in the air, with one pointed finger, he stirred up the others with a new thought, “Actually, I just thought of another game kids used to play. And it's one that is perfect for older teens and adults as well~”

Suika, as expected, let out a small squeal, eager to hear what this could be, “Ooo, what's that!?”

“Truth or Dare!”

Senku coughed, thrown off by the sudden declaration, “You can't be serious.”

“What's that?” Kohaku asked, head tilted to one side, “Is it a bad game or something?”

“Yes!” “No!” came the opposing answers from the stone breakers, and that seemed to make people more confused, a litany of blinks and “huh”s coming out in response.

“Oh, our dear Senku's just upset because he already did a dare~” Gen commented, once again, in his sing-song tone, “You see, it's a simple game. You ask someone the simple question: truth or dare. If the person selects “truth”, then you ask them a question and they must answer it truthfully. If one or others can tell that the person is lying, or if the person selects “dare” from the beginning, then you assign them a task that they must do, without refusal or without failing to complete it. There's no real penalty for failing to do a dare, other than the opportunity to ridicule.”

“That doesn't sound so bad?” Kinro questioned, hand to his chin as he thought about the explanation.

“The basics of it isn't bad. It's when you actually start playing,” Senku said deadpanned, “The questions and dares can be anything the question asker wants. You seriously want to play such a thing with a sadistic mentalist like him?”

“You wound me, dear Senku!” Gen feigned his hurt, clenching at his chest in dramatic fashion, “Do you truly believe I would attempt to make anyone answer or do something so terribly in their first playing of the game?”

“Yes.”

“How unfair!”

As the two made their little argument, Kohaku piped up, “I want to try it. If it's really getting bad, we can just stop playing, right? But we shouldn't just judge it without playing either.”

Everyone else sensibly agreed, much to Gen's delight and Senku's disdain. With everyone on board, with exception to Kaseki, as he excused himself to go back to work at his forge, Gen motioned to everyone to sit upon the ground in a circle. Senku, in typical fashion, initially refused and attempted to leave, but Kohaku, as he predicted before, insisted that he stay, telling him to take a break for a little bit longer and enjoy the game, and Gen smirked, as he had done before, as the scientist reluctantly sat down between her and Chrome, arms crossed over his chest with face obviously displeased.

Once everyone had settled into their spots, Gen started off the game, “Now to start... Suika-chan, truth or dare?”

The melon-hatted girl was thrown off for a second, not expecting to be first, but she quickly changed her attitude with her trademark excitement, “Um... truth!”

Her choice wasn't a surprise; she didn't want to start the game off with finding out what the dares could entail. She was a smart girl, realizing that the dares could potentially be what would make the game stop – she picked up on the idea of that from Gen's earlier dare against Senku during the hopscotch game – and she didn't want the game to end before it began. And so, with truth picked, Gen thought about what question he could ask of the child. He hummed, one finger tapping against his cheek as he thought about his question. He smirked, eyes sparkling with a bit of mischief, “Is it true that the other day you attempted to steal a drink of my last bottle of cola?”

Suika squealed, certainly blushing behind her melon hat, while Kohaku's blue eyes widened, “Suika, you didn't!”

Senku tried to keep his “I told you so” critique behind his teeth, already feeling like the game was going south on just the first question. However, despite all of the “ooo”s and surprise, Suika eventually nodded, admitting to her guilt, “Yes, I did. But I thought it was actually empty at first! I was going to take the bottle back to Kaseki because he said the glass can be reused for something else! I really didn't know that it wasn't! But it smelled really good after I picked it up, so I wanted to try it...”

Gen laughed, her flustered response proving to be more comical than initially thought, eventually stopping her with a wave of his hand. “It's alright, Suika-chan!” he said, trying to reassure her, “I'm not upset with you. If anything, I was more amused by how quickly you managed to drop the bottle before I returned to retrieve it.”

“Suika, you little sneak!” Chrome remarked, “If you really wanted some cola, you can just ask, you know! Pretty sure I know it from watching Senku make it.”

“Pretty sure you don't,” Senku sarcastically commented, “Last time I made it, you were not paying attention.”

“I was! You take that fizzy water and mix with those leaves... uh... corrilander! And--”

“Coriander. Not corrilander. And you're already wrong.”

As the two sorcerers fought out what exactly went into the cola recipe – although most everyone else wasn't too interested in the in-fighting they were doing – Gen turned back towards Suika, “Alright, now you get to pick someone, Suika-chan.”

“Yay! Um...” the child thought about her choice, “Uh... Ginro! Truth or dare?”

The blonde guard proudly squared up his shoulders, exclaiming in his bravest tone, “Dare!”

Suika hummed again, thinking about a good challenge, obviously didn't have anything prepared ahead of time, smiling proudly as she came up with the perfect idea, “I dare you to run around everyone like Chalk!”

The idea of Ginro acting like her pet dog already had everyone ready to laugh, the visual image of it already comedy gold, but as per the rules of the game, the guardsman got up, hunched over with his feet and hands on the ground, and with a loud “bark bark” began his run, doing two laps around everyone while keeping up the act. Even Senku, stoic as he was, had to laugh loudly at the goofy way Ginro ran and how he panted similar to a dog as he stopped back at his place in the circle. Suika clapped, praising him for completing the dare as requested, and once Ginro was able to better catch his breath, it was his turn to pick the next participant.

His eyes landed on Kohaku, “Kohaku, truth or dare?”

The lioness smirked, unabashedly willing to take on whatever challenge he could come up, “Dare!”

A skeevy grin stretched across his face, and suddenly she – as well as everyone else – was starting to regret her choice. “I dare you to let me hug you without punching me!” he exclaimed, and as soon as those words left his mouth, that regret – and some fear – was more prominent.

“You have to be kidding,” the huntress said with a sarcastic laugh, but Ginro was clearly not joking, that smile of his growing wider and more wild.

“Nope! And per the rules of the game, you have to do it! Unless you want to be teased as a coward~” he declared, his perverted desire erasing what semblance of pride he may have, figuring this was a “quality” way to get close to Kohaku without penalty.

She groaned, disgusted but also not entirely shocked that he would pull this move, given similar stunts and attitudes he's tried to pull in the past. She did not want to complete this dare, but she also didn't want to be the first to fail at playing the game either. Her face twisted into a grimace, letting out a reluctant sigh, “Fine... one hug.”

Before Ginro could attempt to approach her, arms already extended out, a sharp pull at his collar kept him from moving too far, forcing him to turn back to see both Kinro and Senku glaring at him.

“Don't try any of your usual crap. You attempt one perverted maneuver, and you're not going to like what comes afterwards,” Senku threatened, his tone and eyes obviously not playing games.

Kinro nodded, also not playing around, although he didn't have to say a word to get his point across. Ginro gulped, acting shifty as he knew he was caught, trying to make better intentions known, “Come on, guys, I wasn't going to do anything bad! It's just a hug! I promise!”

Of course, no one bought that, but Kinro released his collar, allowing the game to continue. Now that he had a threat over his head, the idea of the hug now seemed diluted from the original grand vision he had, but he didn't want to waste the opportunity as it was. With more of an innocent approach to it, Ginro let back up his arms again, inviting Kohaku in – albeit with another groan – for the dared affection, his head leaning on her shoulder and arms and hands staying around her upper back, her arms limply wrapping around him in return. It only lasted for a few seconds before the huntress pushed him away, but he moved away still with a satisfied grin stretched across his lips.

With that bit of embarrassment settled, Kohaku took her turn, choosing Chrome as the bearer of her question. The game went on for quite awhile, featuring a variety of questions, dares, and laughs. However, Senku remained firmly against the game for the most part, never taking a dare despite how much people insisted on him attempting one. Even with the attempt to change the rule halfway through to enforce that everyone HAS to take a dare, Senku didn't budge, much to everyone's disappointment. Gen, although he kept it to himself, was slightly annoyed with his lack of real participation in the game. Although one thing he hoped for with this game was to attempt to bring something more forth related to his hypothesis – the earlier issue with Ginro, while helpful, was also not unexpected, given how much everyone disliked his pervy side – he was also just hoping to see Senku break down those walls for a moment by doing something relatively stupid. If anything, that would give him just as much enjoyment to look back on, loving those little odd moments that come very rarely.

The game, going on for much longer than it probably should, finally allowed for him to not only end it, but also perhaps force Senku to take up one dare, the turn landing on Gen once again to pick a victim. With a toothy grin, he posed the idea, “Senku~ I propose a compromise to your lack of play: the game will end, as soon as this turn, if you choose a dare~”

He quirked a brow at the offer, and in an instant, the bat bastard knew that he had Senku hooked. Given how long the game had gone on and how much he really wasn't enjoying himself, the idea of finally having the game end sounded fantastic. However, it was Gen that was offering the dare, and that was not exactly a thrilling thought. He didn't trust that grin of his, not in the slightest. Still, the desire to go back to work before the sun went down sounded very enticing, and so, with a sigh and uncertainty, he finally relented, “Alright. I'll do a dare.”

The group had a mix of curiosity and excitement, waiting with bated breath on what sort of dare they'll have to see Senku try to complete, almost expecting it to be too good given how resistant he was to the entire idea, as well as seeing how this amazing and fun game would come to a conclusion. They all knew that Gen would save the best for last, as it were, and much to their collective thoughts, they were right: he was scheming a perfect dare. His grin shifted briefly to a more sadistic turn, one he held when he was holding back the worst of his plots, although he cleverly hid it behind his sleeve, clearing his throat before making a motion of attention, pointed finger in the air as he revealed his grand design.

“I dare you to give our Kohaku-chan a small kiss on the cheek!”

The amount of “EEHHH!?!”s were enough that surely those in the village proper were wondering what the hell was going on, the noise being that loud and echoing to stretch over the distance between the two places. Such an unexpected dare! Of course, whereas most people were in a state of surprise and shock, more focus were on the expressions of the two people involved: Senku obviously displeased while Kohaku's face was red and surprised, thrown totally off of her guard over the idea. And yet, Gen was serious, his look not shifting despite all of the changes in the mood. His dare, while highly unorthodox, was actually rather tame: a kiss on the cheek didn't mean much in the context of the dare, but it was namely to see how, exactly, Senku would react to such a request.

There was two paths he could see this going: Senku doing it, ending the game and dealing with the consequences – namely another round of loud noises and some teases about his “feelings” for Kohaku – but once everyone went back to their daily grinds, it would be dropped and likely forgotten to the time, although the same ideas would also occur if he refused the challenge. Either path would not fuel much more to his hypothesis, just being something more to fuel his enjoyment of watching Senku drop his barricades when it came to the resident huntress.

Senku scoffed, almost choking on the air that escaped his lungs, “What the hell sort of crap is that? Have you lost your mind?”

“Ah, not at all, dear Senku~” Gen sing-song, moving to sit a bit closer to Suika, “There's nothing wrong with a little kiss on the cheek! In several cultures, it's used not just as a sign of affection, but as a greeting. A sign of closeness and care for another person.”

To emphasize his point, he placed a small kiss on the side of Suika's melon hat, close to where her cheek would be, the child giggling and blushing, happy to receive the little affection. “Although,” he continued after he pulled back, “In terms of the dare, there is no meaning. It's just that, a dare.”

Senku was still disturbed by the idea, while Kohaku had started to relax. Her face was still a bit pink, but she was not as put off as she initially was. “Well... it's just a kiss on the cheek, so it's not that bad,” she mumbled, although privately she was happy that this sort of thing was being dared of Senku versus someone like Ginro; she didn't even want to see that snake grin that would definitely be more greedy than it was when it came to the hug.

She darted her eyes towards Senku, meeting his gaze with a sheepish smile, waiting for him to approach her. However, he scoffed again, standing up from the circle. “No way in hell am I doing that,” he declared with more irritation than what the situation should call for, “I'm not going to kiss her, even on the cheek.”

A litany of “ooh”s came out in response to the challenge being declined, but Gen wasn't entirely unfazed, still keeping that smile of his, “Oh? Why do you decline the dare?”

Kohaku was curious about this as well, but she kept up a poker face, not wanting to let it show that, internally, she was a bit put off by the tone and words of his decline. She didn't care particularly that he wasn't going to kiss her – she could take or leave that – but why would he react in such a way over it? Senku groaned, brushing back his bangs from his face, knowing full well everyone's eyes were on him and not liking this attention.

“You say there's no meaning, but that's a slippery slope I'm not going to chance,” he explained, “So yes, I'm declining. Game over. I'm done.”

“Ah-uh, I said that the game would end when you completed--” Gen tried to stop him from leaving, but was interrupted.

“What exactly does that mean?” Kohaku questioned, “A slippery slope?”

Crimson and ocean met, and those around them started to settle into quiet, watching the scene play out between the two most dynamic personalities of the Kingdom of Science. “It means the actions of one thing can cause something else to happen that's more monstrous than what was intended,” Senku explained.

“Okay... so what did _you_ mean then?” Kohaku asked, a little more insistence in her tone, the definition of what the term was now settled but the answer unsatisfying.

His eyes narrowed and there was a rush of beats to his chest, but he ignored it, writing it off as anxiety from the attention. “What I mean is I don't want to risk something started off as a dare turning into something else,” he said firmly, beginning to walk away, not wanting to discuss the subject any further.

She stood up, now a bit more huffy than she was before, “And what do you mean by that?!”

Everyone else began to move away from their initial circle, not wanting to be in the middle of what was happening, all knowing of what Kohaku could do if she was angry enough to lash out. Senku sighed, also growing more annoyed with the continuation of the subject, “I'm being very clear on what I mean. Don't act as though you don't understand.”

“No, you're really not. I fully understand that it's a game. There is nothing more than that,” she barked back, “What I don't understand is why you believe that something more would come from that. So you kiss my cheek. What's the big deal about that?”

“Because such a thing is never just meaningless when you look at the big picture.”

“Oh, so what should we expect now from Gen kissing Suika's cheek, then?”

“Absolutely nothing. That's a different situation.”

“How so?”

The longer the conversation went on, the more obvious their anger was becoming. Senku's from just wanting to leave the conversation alone, and Kohaku's coming from offense. There was a clear double standard here, and she wasn't wanting to stand for it. Gen's smile was no long in place, watching this with careful precision, analyzing every flicker of movement and inflection of tone to decipher what was at the root of this conflict. Although he was certain that he knew: it wasn't as though it was the dare that was the problem, but it was Senku's feelings towards Kohaku. That slippery slope was with him.

The moment the challenge came from Gen's lips, the memory of the other morning flashed in his mind. How close he came to kissing her in her sleeping state. It was in the aftermath of that incident that the scientist became more acutely aware of his growing feelings towards the lioness, becoming more apparent in the ways he would catch himself acting when it came to her. The long glances, the playful banter, the panic over her injury... all of the things that Gen had seen and registered in his head as valid changes to his hypothesis he also had realized within himself, and that actually scared him. For a man that had no desire to pursue romance, for someone that was appalled by the thought of it and how it would affect his pursuits of science, the mere thought that those ideals were changing was enough to send him into a personal tailspin. That's why he had to reject the dare; who knew what that actually would spark, and he didn't want to have that on his conscious.

Damn that bat bastard.

He groaned harshly, rubbing the back of his neck. “This is ridiculous,” he mumbled at first, voice turning up louder as he spoke more directly, “I'm not going to dive into all of the stupid emotional crap that kisses bring up.”

“What “crap” is that? Again, we just saw Gen kiss Suika's cheek. She got fluttery, and it was cute, and that was that. How is that okay, but you kissing me on the cheek is bad?”

She took a step towards him, “I get that you hate romantic things, but there's nothing romantic here. It's part of a game. So what emotional crap is supposed to come from that?”

He didn't answer right away, mostly because he didn't quite know how to answer. But the lack of answer just fueled Kohaku's anger more. “Is it because it's me or something? If you were dared to kiss Suika, would've that been okay?” she asked.

“Like I said, it's different.”

“How so? It's still a kiss made on a dare. So what would make kissing me different than with Suika?”

“She's a child. Kissing a child's cheek is nothing that special.”

“Neither is kissing mine! Again, _because it's a dare_.”

“Hey, come on, can we try and drop it?” Chrome tried to interject, standing up and attempting to get into the middle, although he was cautious of being too close to Kohaku, but the two continued to glare at one another, ignoring Chrome's plea.

“Why is this such a big deal? Are you mad that I didn't kiss you?”

“No, I'm mad because you made it sound like _I_ was the problem, and I want to know what the hell that problem is.”

“There's not a problem with you!”

“Then why decline the dare!?”

Things were boiling over. Suika was shaking, looking at them and at Gen, who was also now at a total loss at how far this situation had gone. Never did he think they would begin to argue like this. If Kohaku hadn't interrupt, his idea was to tease about the game not being over and then offering a different challenge, just to try and bring the game to an end, but now he was on the sidelines just watching things progress. Ginro and Kinro didn't know what to say or do as well, and while Chrome took a step closer to Senku, he didn't say much more quite yet, also unsure of what more words to say.

“Look, just drop it, alright? It's done and over with! I'm not kissing you!”

“Not until you answer me! What is wrong with me that you couldn't do it? Why is it a slippery slope? There's a reason why you said that you weren't in the way that you did, so what the hell is it!?”

“Because I have no desire in ever kissing someone like you!” Senku finally just blurted out, pushed the edge of his anger, losing control over himself.

The answer sent everyone into stillness and silence, unable to make a move or sound. It seemed as though even nature stopped, not a single sound of rustling leaves or animals hitting anyone's ears. Kohaku's chest heaved, hands clenched in fists, body quivering. “What... do you mean someone like me?” she asked through gritted teeth, her voice sounding restrained.

“No kiss is without meaning, even in a dare, and I have no desire to even perpetuate a chance of a romantic fantasy, and that's exactly what this crap can lead to. I'm not going to go through that with you,” he continued his rant, his body shaking with that uncontrolled rage, “Why the hell would I ever be interested in someone who can't keep herself in control of her own emotions? Someone that, on the first day we met, said that you fell for me like some dumb teenager? Someone that acts like a freaking gorilla soon as someone ticks you off?”

“Hey, Senku, that's--” Chrome tried to interject again, the brunette himself starting to feel a little rage himself over Senku's rant, finding it to be way too cruel for what the situation warranted, even from the slave-driver that Senku was, only to be cut off as Kohaku walked swiftly past him.

The next sound to be heard was that of a loud slap, her palm meeting Senku's cheek, his head falling sideways and eyes widened by the surprise of the impact. Her arm moved back, hand shaking but not as much as her entire body, eyes wet from trying to hold back the burn of angry tears. Her teeth bit her bottom lip hard, heart beating so fast she could barely breathe. His head turned back towards her, hand moving to hold his reddened cheek, lips fallen agape.

“Go to hell, Senku,” she finally uttered, those tears of hers falling down her cheeks, before she turned on her heels and ran away, jumping through the trees and into the forest.

“Kohaku!” Suika called out, wanting to run after her, but Gen stopped her with a grip on her shoulder, shaking his head at her.

He knew that, right now, it was best if the blonde was left alone, and Suika seemed to understand that by Gen's gaze, feeling entirely downtrodden at seeing her pseudo-sister's pained expression. Everyone else looked at one another, confused as to what had just happened but unable to do anything about it, also knowing full well that there wasn't anything they could do. At least last time advice could've been shared to try and reassure Senku after he made his outburst, but this time... this time there was nothing that could be said.

The scientist's eyes remained on the line of trees where she had disappeared into, before turning towards Gen. There was anger there, but both knew it wasn't just the mentalist's fault. His dare was the catalyst, but the break down was entirely on the shoulders of the crimson-eyed man. Breaking away, Senku walked away without another word, leaving everyone to the silence and uncertainty.

\----------

Three days past since the truth or dare game, and Kohaku had yet to return to the Kingdom of Science, spending the entirety of her days hiding among the trees all alone. Not even Ruri knew exactly where she went, although she did learn as to why she was choosing to hide as she was. Everyone tried to keep themselves busy with their tasks, but there was still the heavy air lingering over the base due to the unresolved tension.

That air was heaviest around Senku, his chest and head filled with regret over what had happened. In the hours that followed that first evening, he realized how truly wrong he was in how he acted. All because of his denial of his own emotions. Everything he said, every action he took, was all due to him not wanting to confront the feelings growing for her. The dare didn't have to mean anything, but he took it as something more than intended, and now here he was, sliding down that slippery slope that was all his creation.

What's worse is that he had no idea how to exactly fix it. This wasn't something that he could solve with his intelligence and scientific know-how. This was a human problem. Human problems were not at all his forte. Which is why he preferred to keep his emotions in check, not allowing the illogical fallacies of them disturb him from his chosen path. However, he needed to figure out some way to fix it. Not only was it affecting the progression of the Kingdom, but he also didn't want to leave things as it was. Regardless of his more loving interest in the woman, she was still a friend and ally, and did not want that to be broken by an out-of-control and ridiculous argument.

On the third day, he approached Suika, asking her to use her detective abilities to scout out where Kohaku could be hiding and report the location back to him, something of which she eagerly accepted. Just like him, she wanted to bring this standoff to an end and have them patch up their relationship again, and so she went off into the forests, eventually finding her fighting against a tree with her blades, recording the location's landmarks in her head and returning to Senku without being detected. After making her report, she was thanked with a head pat and a verbal confirmation of a job well done, and after steeling himself to actually go through with it, he set off into the forest.

Gen watched as he departed from his place near the observatory, walking over to Suika once Senku was out of sight, patting the child's shoulder and giving her a reassuring smile before leading her away in order to have her do something to keep her mind off of worrying.

Senku didn't know how far he actually went into the trees before he caught signs of the combat Kohaku had against the trees, following the deep gashes and markings on the trunks as his path. He caught no sight or sound of her beyond those markings, keeping eyes and ears alert on not just what was ahead but above as well. Eventually, the trail stopped, leaving him to continue on in what way he thought she was based on the information given to him.

Eventually, he was stopped by a familiar voice calling out to his appearance, “What are you doing here?”

He turned his head upwards towards the canopy, meeting Kohaku's irritated gaze from her perch upon a large tree branch, her back against the trunk with one leg bent inward and the other stretched across the appendage. She sighed, “I'm assuming you had Suika scout out my location. No way in hell you would've attempted to set out on your own to find me.”

“You're correct,” he replied curtly, and she sighed again, mumbling a “figured” in response.

After a few moments of silence, his fingers clenched into a fist by his side, “I just want to talk.”

She chuckled darkly, “We tried that last time. All you did was ignore my questions and then decided to punch me in the stomach.”

He groaned, knowing full well that was coming but it didn't make it less painful. He brushed back his bangs in some sort of reflexive move, looking away as he did before turning back towards her. “I know,” he said, “And I'm sorry. Truly sorry. I shouldn't have blown up at you like I did.”

She scoffed, “No, you shouldn't have. But that's not actually the problem, and pretty sure you know that.”

Oh, he knew. He knew full well that wasn't the problem. But it was easier to apologize for the action than it was for the words. He looked away again, and Kohaku scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest and turning her head towards the canopy. He gazed up her way, not meeting hers, before looking towards the tree itself. She wasn't too high up, considering, but he didn't quite bring any of the tools he would use to make his own way up the tree. Knowing that he was probably going to land on his ass, he bid farewell to consequence and walked towards the trunk, using what reserves of strength he had to attempt to climb up the tree.

Her gaze turned back towards him, eyes narrowing. “What are you doing now, Senku?”

Through a couple of pants and a slip from the bark, he answered, “It'd be easier... to talk to you... if we're face-to-face.”

She blinked, sighing as she moved and jumped down from the branch, landing onto the ground. For a brief second, that irritated the scientist, having wasted a lot of energy that he didn't have to, but he didn't allow that to manifest further than that. Moving back away from the tree and turning to face her, the silence returned. Her arms crossed over her chest again, his clenching at his sides, blood and water meeting and passing twice over, the distance between them feeling like miles compared to the feet that they were.

A few times, Senku attempted to speak, the words dying on his tongue. Kohaku only watched him, waiting, disappointed when he failed to say anything. He could feel that disappointment and how it seemed to put more barriers that he needed to cross.

He felt his nails digging into his skin, almost certain that he needed to relax his hands before he cut into his palms. “Kohaku, I'm sorry. What I said... I shouldn't have said those things either,” he finally managed to get out, but the look on her face told him that she wasn't so easily pleased.

“Do you have any idea how it feels?” she asked.

He didn't answer right away, knowing that there was more incoming, and he was right. She tried to keep her breathing from becoming staggered due to the rising bubbles in her stomach. “Do you have any idea how it feels to have someone that you _trust_ so much, someone that you've come to care for so, _SO_ much,” she emphasized her words, fingers gripping at her arms so hard that indentations began to form on her skin, “to hear them take the worst things about you, things that you know are bad but have been trying to change them for the better, and have them thrown into your face like that?”

The sting of tears began to burn her eyes, and he could see them, feeling the burn of them hitting him as well. “Well, do you, Senku?” she insisted, trying to drag out an answer.

“No, I can't say that I do.”

“Then do you understand how incredibly shallow an “I'm sorry” actually sounds right now?”

She was right, and he knew it; an “I'm sorry” wasn't going to cut it, but he had hoped it was a start. Obviously he was wrong, the apologize having the opposite effect from what he wanted. She took a step towards him, one arm falling to her side while the other held a clenched fist against her chest. “You've called me a gorilla and a lioness before, and while I hate it, I knew that it never came from something really bad,” she continued, “But for you to call me a gorilla like that, shouting it at me, calling me dumb... you have _no_ clue how badly you hurt me. Of all people, I didn't think _you'd_ ever go so low.”

“I...” he tried to say another apology, but he knew those words would just ring hollow to her.

She was right again; he had no clue how badly his actions harmed her. That stinging air of regret filled the space between them, separating them even further than already were, despite her taking another step towards him. His teeth gritted, seething through them for a moment as he lowered his head, eyes shutting as he tried to regain his composure. He didn't mean those words! He didn't mean them in the slightest! Never did he ever want to hurt her like this! Never! He cared for her, he liked her, he lo--

She stepped in front of him, a fist extended towards his chest, the action of it all bringing him out of his self-deprecating reverie.

“Kohaku...?” he whispered, unable to bring his voice above it.

“If it weren't for you, I would've lost Ruri. For that reason, and for the sake of my home, I will never betray the Kingdom of Science. I'll continue to be your gorilla and I will fight to protect you just as I would everyone else,” she declared, eyes unwavering from his despite how much they were swimming, “But when it comes to you and I, there's nothing more I have to say to you. As you said... it's done and over with.”

His body quaked with anxiety again, bottom lip shaking, eyes wide and clouded. This wasn't where he wanted things to go. He wanted to fix things, wanted to get back to normal. But the look in her eyes, the tone and weight of her words, said that normal wasn't possible. Backing her fist away from his chest, she walked past him, back towards the village, the thoughts in her head turning towards apologizing to the others for worrying them.

He stood in place for moments afterwards, watching as she walked away, unable to move towards her. It was as if those barricades had expanded, growing between them and moving as she did, making sure to keep the distance between them. But he couldn't just let that happen. He wasn't about to let things go like this! He ran to catch up to her, arm reaching out to try and grasp as her shoulder, trying to stop her. Trying to make her turn around, to face him, to let him fix this and to tell her how sorry he truly, sincerely was.

“Kohaku! Kohaku, please--”

Within a flash, she had turned, but this time with blade in hand, the tip of it mere inches from his throat. Blood overpowered by the ocean and sharp teeth of a true lioness. His hand fell to his side with a limp rest, every ounce of strength and every breath in his body leaving him all at once. “I told you, Senku... I'm done,” she said through her barred canines, lowering her weapon before turning away and starting her walk again, leaving him in the dust of her threat.

It was overwhelming. The regret, the realization of his mistakes... his knees gave way, his body collapsing to the ground, unable to look away from her retreating back. His chest heaved, breath returning in pants and seethes, every part of him shaking worse than he had ever felt before, his stomach filling with nausea and the urge to throw up was starting to sound all too good.

“Damn it...” he uttered through the heavy breathing, hands clenching into fists again, hitting the gravel and grass, “Damn it!”

A single tear fell down his cheek, “You freaking idiot...!”


	5. Twists and Turns

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo everyone! This is the final chapter of Triangles! Once again, I thank everyone that has supported and liked my story! I really appreciated all of the comments and kudos! I hope that you'll check out a lot of my other stories and be on the lookout for future stories! Thank you so much, and please enjoy the finale!

In the days following Kohaku's return, while work had continued as always, things were not back to their chaotic peace, the thick air of uncertainty and concern still settled over. It was clear that Senku and Kohaku had yet to make up from their spat, and something occurred in the forest that made it worse, the animosity from the young huntress apparent by her few interactions with Senku. That animosity proving to be a heavy burden on the scientist's shoulders, with how entirely defeated he seemed when she would walk away.

This was not something that Gen had in mind when he initiated the dare, and it, too, brought him waves of guilt. Although he would eventually make his apologies to Senku – and received one in return, much to his surprise, as well as confirmation that he wasn't entirely at fault – he still couldn't keep the bouts of guilt from coming as he would watch the few interactions the two would have. To see them this far apart from one another, to see the anger and hate in her blue orbs, the way his fists would shake... the close relationship they had was clinging by one mere thread, it seemed, that was close to breaking on its own.

His apology extended to Kohaku as well, although she blatantly told him that there was nothing he needed to apologize to her for, smiling at him with one of those rare, blinding ones that she used to throw him off his guard. She also stayed closer to him, willing to be more helpful with his tasks or conversing more, when she wasn't busy with training. He didn't mind it, of course, although he did well to ignore the occasional glare that Senku would send his way. Whether those glares were of anger or jealousy, the mentalist wasn't entirely sure; he was thinking both, however.

After a long and strenuous training bout, Kohaku called for a break – much to Ginro and Kinro's delight, although they weren't able to break for long before they were suckered into other tasks – and moved towards the outskirts of the main camp, settling herself against a large tree that provided a lot of shade. She was hot, sweating, and her head began to hurt not only from it and the training, but the lack of sleep over the past few days as well. It's been hard to sleep, between hiding herself away from everyone in order to further distance with Senku, the stress that came in the aftermath of the initial argument, and what came afterwards, and it was starting to take a toll on her body. She thought about taking a short nap, letting the shade and warm breeze carry her pains away for a spell, a thought that increasingly sounded better the longer she sat against the trunk, eyes that were looking up towards the partly cloudy sky slowly starting to shut...

“Would you like some water, Kohaku-chan?”

Gen's voice broke her from the reverie, her eyes opening up wide again to see him standing not too far from her, holding out a clay cup filled with the aforemention liquid. “Oh, Gen... sorry,” she apologized for her lack of awareness, shaking her head before returning a smile and reaching out for the cup, “Yes, thank you.”

“You're welcome~” he replied with a smile in return, taking a seat to her right, “I figured after such an intense training set, a cool glass of water would be a welcomed treat.”

“It really is,” she agreed, taking a sip and enjoying the chill against her tongue, releasing an “ah” after she swallowed.

He watched as she drank, chuckling for a moment before his attention turned towards the bodyguard duo, watching as they were being forced into using the manpower generator again for something or another, the details of it he really didn't care to know and he wasn't about to ask either, out of fear that he would be dragged into some physically heavy project. “Too bad they aren't allowed the same luxury,” he commented, a little bit of sympathy in his tone.

Kohaku shrugged her shoulders, a bit of a smirk playing her lips, “It'll do them good, though. I've noticed since they've been stuck turning it, they've both started to build up some better muscles. That extra strength will be very useful.”

“Indeed, that is true,” he agreed, although he still felt that pang of sympathy towards them.

She took a long drink from the cup, emptying it, placing it down between them. She sighed, leaning back against the trunk, hand to her head, a small groan leaving her lips as she momentarily shut her eyes, covering them from what peeks of sun that came through the shade. He glanced at her sideways for a moment before turning his head entirely with a small, concerned frown, “What's wrong?”

“It's really nothing,” she tried to reassure, “My head is hurting a bit. That's all.”

“Have you been drinking enough? Sleeping well?”

“Not as much as I'm sure I should, for both.”

Gen clicked his tongue at her, much to her momentary displeasure. She hated that condescending “tsk”, but she didn't make a word or motion against it; he wasn't entirely wrong with making the noise, given that she should have done better on both fronts. Moving the cup a bit more out of the way, he scooted himself a bit closer to her, bringing up his hands to gently grasp her face, motioning for her to turn to face him.

“What are you doing?” she asked cautiously, her arm lowering and eyes opening, brows furrowed as she felt unsure in his closeness and touch.

“Trying to alleviate your headache,” he replied, thumb and index finger of one hand gently pressing against her forehead, flashing her a knowingly smile, “Please, relax.”

She let out a small noise, a bit annoyed still at his sudden action, but sighed and shut her eyes again, allowing him to work his magic. She had to admit, the pressure he was placing on her head felt nice, as he moved from her forehead and the bridge of her nose, to her temples, to her cheeks right below her eyes, and over again for quite a few moments. Her shoulders fell, breathing calm, her body feeling rather at ease for the first time in a bit. The pain in her head, for the moment, also subsided, much to her delight. After a few massages, his hands dropped from her face, her eyes slowly fluttering back open to see those dark cerulean eyes watching her.

“Better?”

“I still have some pain, but it's much better than before. Thank you!”

He laughed softly, “You're welcome. I dealt with a lot of those pains back in my day. Bright lights and loud audiences for several hours, and the like. Sometimes I couldn't take medicine to deal with it, so I learned a few techniques to help with such things. What I did is called acupressure.”

“Acupressure?”

“Yes. You see, your body has several areas on it known as pressure points. By gently pressing and massaging these points, it can help to alleviate different types of pain. Of course, for headaches, the best things are drinking plenty of water and getting a lot of good sleep, but this method helps as well,” he explained, pointing to areas of pressure points as he spoke.

“Huh... that's pretty neat,” she replied, a bit awestruck at the new knowledge, brushing her fingers against her forehead where his had touched.

He chuckled, pushing himself away from her to settle where he was originally, allowing for a comfortable distance between them. “Yes, I suppose that it is. However, it's plausible that it'll come back, so I would suggest that you take it easy for the rest of the day. Perhaps go to sleep early,” he recommended, “A power nap would likely also do a world of good as well.”

“Power nap?” she repeated, head tilting to one side with a flicker of confusion flashing across her orbs, never hearing that term before.

“Bluntly, it's sleeping for a short period of time during the middle of the day. If one is tired, or if one is sick or has a headache, a power nap can be just enough to refresh a person to get them through the rest of the day. Although, I suppose it'd be hard to determine what is a “short period of time”, given the lack of clocks and alarms in this world,” Gen explained, a folded hand against his chin as he thought about the logistics of it, lamenting the loss of convenience that he had taken advantage of.

Kohaku hummed, realizing that his term was just a modern twist on what she was already attempting to do, mumbling more to herself, “Hmm... that does sound rather nice, the more we talk about it.”

A little playful smirk came across her lips as an idea came into her mind, “Hey, Gen? May I borrow your lap?”

Blink. Blink. “Eh?”

This request sounded too familiar, throwing Gen onto his mental backside, eyes widened and one brow quirked. That smirk of hers stretched a little more as she explained, “What you suggested sounds rather nice. However, if I go back home, I'll likely end up sleeping the rest of the day, and there's still a lot of things to do, including more training for those two. So perhaps I can rest here with you, and you can wake me up after awhile?”

“Well... you're not incorrect in that assessment, and I have no issue with waking you up,” he sheepishly responded, a bit unsure in his answer at first, before sobering up and questioning her, “But is there a reason why you desire to rest upon my lap?”

“It'd be better than the ground or a tree, right?”

If it wasn't for his surprise, Gen would certainly be beside himself with laughter at how the tables had turned. All of his words from before – when he had faked his dizzy spell that started off his entire experiment – were now being thrown back in his face, and Kohaku knows exactly what she was doing, based off that feline grin of hers. She was being crafty and playful, but he could see the specks of seriousness sprinkled into her expression, as well as the signs of exhaustion within her watercolor orbs.

He chuckled after a moment of quiet, shaking his head in disbelief, before removing his overcoat and folding it into a makeshift pillow. He moved to align his back better against the tree, shifting his form to sit more comfortably, not only for himself, but for Kohaku, placing the folded coat onto his lap before silently signaling her to lie down. With a small “thank you”, she did just that, stretching out the rest of her body against the grass, laying on one side that allowed her to face the camp, arms brought up near her head.

She let out a small sigh, closing her eyes and allowing herself to relax again. “Just a little sleep,” she whispered like a mantra to herself, and Gen let out another chuckle in response to her words.

Leaning his head back, arms limply at his sides, he sighed heavily, laughing to himself at how incredible this situation had become. “Of all things,” he quietly mumbled after some time, after he figured that Kohaku had fallen asleep.

Suika eventually caught sight of the two of them, the child quickly scrambling to their sides. He saw her approach, making a “shh” motion with one finger against his lips, surprising her for a moment before she understood what he meant.

“What's wrong with Kohaku?” she whispered, concerned about the sleeping fighter, “Is she okay?”

“She's fine; she just has a headache. She's taking a nap in hopes of sleeping it off,” Gen explained softly, “Can you do me a favor, Suika-chan?”

She nodded vigorously, always ready to help. Gen reached for the cup, Kohaku having moved it closer to him as she laid down, handing it to the little girl. “Please, fill this up with some more water, and if you can, fill another cup with water as well,” he instructed, “Then, after you bring the cups back, could you find a small piece of cloth and dip it cool water, then bring it back over here as well?”

“Yes, I'll take care of it!” she agreed, grabbing the cup carefully with both hands, running away towards their supplies of purified water.

From a distance, Senku eyed them all, seeing Kohaku's form resting on Gen's lap and the chatter between him and Suika, watching as she took something from Gen's hands and running away from the others with that object carefully in her hands. Eyes went towards the child, walking towards her as she filled the object – a clay cup – with water before grabbing another, examining it for anything stuck inside, and filling it up as well.

“What's going on over there, Suika?” he asked, motioning his head towards the duo by the trees.

“Kohaku has a headache. Gen says she's taking a nap to try and sleep it off,” she explained, “... What's a headache, anyway?”

“It's a pain that can affect several areas of your head and face, caused by a lot of different factors. Stress, lack of sleep, dehydration, issues with your sinuses, and so on,” he explained matter-of-factually, “Likely, you experienced this pain yourself, before you got your glasses.”

“Oh! So that's what it's called! Oh no, poor Kohaku!” Suika lamented, recalling the memory of those head pains.

“Don't worry so much. Sleep can cure a headache. Same with drinking more water. I'm guessing that's what Gen is having you do?” Senku brushed off the concern with a reassuring smirk before asking about the cups.

The girl nodded, “Yes. And he asked me to get a cold, wet cloth.”

“A cool compress. Good,” the scientist complimented, glad to hear that Gen knew exactly what he was doing, although this wasn't a surprise in the slightest, “All of that will help. You're a good girl, Suika.”

She blushed at the compliment, always happy to hear praise, before nodding and eagerly running back towards Gen, being careful with the cups in her hands, while leaving Senku to watch. Seeing Gen taking one cup for himself while motioning for the other to be sat down beside him, being saved for Kohaku when she woke up with no doubt, eyes following Suika as she ran off again to find the cloth before returning, watching as the mentalist carefully drank from the held object, trying not to accidentally spill or dribble onto Kohaku's head, gaze moving towards her, watching as she slept almost too comfortably with her head against his violet coat.

His fist clenched at his sides, that bubbling feeling of anger, regret, and jealousy forming in his stomach. All illogical feelings that he despised because of how they affected him, how much they now came to make him sick. The acid rose in his throat as Suika returned with the cloth, wringing it out as Gen instructed before handing it off to him, his hands delicately folding it first, followed by gently moving her bangs back and placing it against her head, allowing the folded piece to cover her forehead and side. She didn't seem to be too disturbed by it, much to the delight of the others, Suika sitting down beside Gen as they quietly conversed and watched over her.

He gritted his teeth, turning away from them. He had to stop watching, knowing that all he was doing was making things worse for himself. He had to go back to his work, his reason, his science. Had to focus on something else, anything else. Going back towards and inside the lab, he grabbed for a few jars and his mortar and pestle. While unable to fully get his mind off of her, he at least could provide himself with a momentary distraction. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead as he crushed, mixed, and poured, creating a weaker version of his “power up” drink that Ginro greedily drank during the Grand Bout, enough to stimulate the system to try and help eliminating the headache pains. He scribbled down some instructions on a piece of skin, tying it to the glass with thin cord, knowing that Gen would be able to read and relay the intentions of the liquid to Kohaku once she woke up.

He left his lab to see that they were still in the same place, but Suika was now laying against Gen's other side, looking as though she was napping herself, while Gen absentmindedly played with a pile of pulled flowers, obviously gathered by Suika in order for him to do something while he was being used as a temporary bed. His approach stopped inches short of them, the two men's eyes meeting. Not a word was said as Senku handed Gen the glass flask with the drink inside, just a nod of the head towards the sleeping beauty and a nod of understanding in return.

Scarlet remained on her for a moment more before closing and turning away, knowing that if she were to awaken while he was there, it wasn't going to bode well. He knew that, for the sake of everyone but especially her, it would be better if he weren't the first one she sees upon opening her eyes again.

Gen wasn't sure how much time had actually passed by since Kohaku first started her nap. He assumed an hour or two, judging by the placement of the sun in the sky. During the downtime, he kept busy with making a garland of the pulled flowers Suika had brought him, tying it around the child's neck after she woke up from her own little nap much to her squealing delight, the rest of the time that Kohaku slept spent with him telling her another fairy tale of the past. Eventually, Suika was called to assist with something that Chrome wanted her for, leaving Gen alone in the quiet. Shortly after her departure, with a judgment of his own, he decided to wake up the huntress, gently shaking her shoulders with a soft, calling voice.

“Kohaku-chan, it's been quite awhile... perhaps it's time to wake up?”

She shifted and moaned, a typical reaction of being disturbed from a nice slumber, her body turning onto her back, the cloth that was on her head shifting and falling between her head and Gen's torso. Gen pulled back as she moved one arm up to rub her eyes, slowly opening them as to not be bothered by the bright sunlight too harshly. “Mmm...” she hummed, vision clearing and seeing the mixture of sun, sky, trees, and Gen's face, smiling softly at the last, “Hmm... that was nice. Thank you, Gen.”

“Of course~ How is your pain? Has it subsided?”

She sat up, stretching out her arms now that she was no longer in a position where she could accidentally hit him, nodding her head afterwards, “Yes, it feels like it. Although... now I feel like I've wasted part of the day.”

“Sometimes it can feel that way, but what's more important is that you had time to relax and recover,” Gen explained, handing her the cup of water that Suika had gathered awhile ago.

She took it from his fingers, downing the cup all in one go with a refreshing “ah” at the end, placing it on the ground next to her. “I suppose so,” she said with a slightly defeated sigh, “Still...”

He chuckled as he watched her lean back on her hands, her eyes looking bright and refreshed but her lips in a scowl, a small piece of him finding her expression to be rather cute as her cheeks puffed out in an aspirated pout. He removed the damp cloth and his overcoat from his lap, placing them on the grass, before he reached for the glass bottle near his side, hidden out of Kohaku's initial sight, shifting it in his hands before holding it out to her. Her gaze turned towards it, brow quirked, before looking at him with confusion and suspicion.

“... That looks like that doping drink that Senku made before the Grand Bout.”

“It is, sort of. He gave it to me while you were sleeping,” Gen explained, motioning to the scribbled-on skin, “He wrote that it's far weaker. It's meant to be a small pick-me-up and a relief for your headache pains. I suppose it's because of the caffeine used from the tea leaves.”

She scoffed, a short rise in anger taking up space in her chest, looking at the liquid with disdain. The mentalist wasn't entirely surprised by her reaction, although that knowledge still brought a small bit of discomfort of his own. “He's just trying to help you feel better. Regardless of what issues remain between you two,” he said softly, seriousness in his tone that he hoped that she would realize isn't meant to bother or hurt her.

She knew that, but it still didn't make things better. Sea-green eyes turned out towards the camp, towards the direction where Senku was standing alongside Chrome, chattering about one thing or another, certainly related to whatever work they did today. She scoffed again, reaching out and grabbing the bottle from his hand, “Feh... just wanting to make sure his gorilla stays on her toes, I bet.”

She uncorked it, sniffing it and finding the smell not entirely unpleasant, before taking a sip of it. Her face wrinkled slightly, not enjoying the taste as much, but still took another gulp of it before placing the cork back into the bottle to seal it off.

“Don't know how Ginro managed to drink all of this. It's not very good.”

“To be fair, he likely wasn't paying attention to that in his panic.”

“... This is true.”

She handed him back the bottle, standing up and stretching out her legs before taking the bottle back. “Thank you, Gen. For everything today,” she said, looking down at him with a cheery, adorable smile, “I think I'm going to gather up those two and get in one more sparring session before sundown.”

“Try to take it easy, Kohaku-chan. If you start to feel those headache pains again, stop and rest. Drink plenty of fluids as well.”

“I will.”

She walked away towards where she saw Ginro and Kinro sitting and working on fashioning new spears, their attention turning towards her as she neared them. Gen, staying in his place by the tree, watched them interact for a few moments, before looking away, standing up himself with his overcoat in hand, stretching out his legs and arms after the long period of stillness, putting the overcoat back on before leaning down and grabbing the two clay cups, thinking of refilling one to quench his throat.

Senku caught sight of Kohaku now awake, interacting with the two brothers as they worked, the huntress admiring the work on the sharpened blades. He saw a glimpse of the bottle with less liquid in it than before in her hand, giving him a moment of relief that she didn't entirely reject his assistance. She uncorked the bottle again, taking another swig of the drink, closing it again after she wiped her lips of the drink, face twitching at the taste. The scientist laughed to himself at the face, turning away as to not give away that he was watching her.

However, he failed at this, her eyes landing on him as he attempted to hide his laugh. She should've known he would be watching her somehow, although she was certain that he has been the entire day. She thought about Gen's words, playing them over in her head, the grasp on the glass tight but she was aware enough to keep from breaking it.

“Hey. Senku.”

His head turned as fast as those words left her lips, heart instantly racing at the sound of her voice saying his name. Scarlet eyes were a fraction wider, adrenaline obviously a cause for his dilating pupils, and while he tried to seem calm and aloof, it would be clear upon closer inspection that he was far from it.

For a moment, they just stared at one another, before Kohaku broke the first barrier between them, her lips curling into a short smirk, lifting the bottle up from her side and closer to her chest.

“Thanks.”

She turned away from him after speaking that word, motioning for Ginro and Kinro to join her for some more sparring, feeling a bit more energized and not wanting to waste more of the day. All Senku could do was watch her back as she retreated, hand and bottle falling back to her side. Chrome stepped forward, having watched the interactions from the sidelines, placing a hand on Senku's shoulder in an attempt to break him from his spell, the two looking at one another with a smile, before going back to their own tasks.

The air started to feel just a wee bit lighter and easier to breathe.

\----------

Darkness eventually fell, bringing the main bulk of work to the end. The large fire was lit, with meals being shared. It was mostly quiet, with some conversation here or there, but overall the tension kept it from being too boisterous. The moment of peace between the two helped, but it was a small pebble breaking from a mountainside, the calm too fragile and easy to crack.

Once the meals were done, most everyone had gone back to their homes to rest. Kohaku had thought of doing the same, but she was really rather awake after her nap and drinking the caffeinated mix, so she hung out in the same spot that she did earlier in the day, leaned against the trunk of a tree with a clay cup of water – keeping to her word of staying hydrated – gazing up at the sky. It was a bit more cloudy than earlier in the day, but she could still see some stars through the cover. It was relaxing, she felt, watching what few stars were peeking through, enjoying the evening breeze that blew, it rustling the leaves charmingly and matching the faint crackling of the fire.

“I'm a bit surprised to see you still around, Kohaku-chan.”

She laughed, her gaze turning towards the arriving friend, “After everything, I feel more awake than ever. But caffeine does that, right?”

Gen sat down beside her as before, feeling a sense of deja-vu but was fine with the feeling, nodding his head, “Yes, it can. Although I'd be wary of the withdrawals from having too much. It can leave you feeling worse than when you began. But surely Senku thought of that while making the drink.”

“Heh... probably.”

There was brief silence as those words and thoughts lingered, Gen witnessing her eyes briefly turning towards the direction Senku last went before returning towards the night sky. It was obvious that subject wasn't going to be spoken of further – nor did it need to, at this moment – and so the quiet was better. He joined her in her stargazing, watching as the clouds float by, revealing a few more of the celestial objects in their passing. Admittedly, Gen has found himself able to enjoy stargazing a lot more nowadays, compared to in the modern age. All of the lights, tall buildings, and pollution diluted the sky, making stars hard to see most of the time. One day, the world would return to that, he knew and believed, so in some ways, he was making sure to soak up as much of this natural beauty while he could, knowing that it would be a fine memory to look back upon.

“Hey, Gen?”

“Yes?”

“Would you like to play a game?”

The mentalist's head turned slightly towards her, a glimmer of curiosity flashing across his face, “A game? Like what?”

“Truth or dare. Two questions and one dare each. A short game. Just for something fun.”

Shades of blue met, pondering and waiting. The mentalist was a bit unsure, knowing how well the last time this game went, as well as wondering what sort of angle Kohaku was desiring by suggesting such a game. There was something in her eyes that he couldn't quite decipher that held the key to that question, although certainly he wouldn't find out the answer without attempting to play the game...

His lips turned into a smirk, a deep laugh in his throat as he turned to face Kohaku more head-on, arms crossed over his chest and within his sleeves. “Alright. Let's play, then,” he answered, and Kohaku shared her own clever smirk as she turned her form, legs folded in and to one side with arms and hands resting comfortably on her lap.

“Truth or dare?” she inquired first, starting off the game.

“Truth,” Gen chose, wanting to start off with the lighter option, or at least he hoped that it would be.

“Have you ever fallen in love before?”

He visibly gawked at the question; never had he heard of Kohaku discuss anything related to romance before! Although, it shouldn't be a surprise if such subjects have now made their way into her mind in the aftermath of the argument with Senku. Still, to hear such a question spill from her lips, and directed at him, no less, was as surprising as his sights upon first being brought out of the stone. Her ears awaited the answer, and he knew that he needed to answer. After all, that was the point of the game.

“No, I can't say that I have,” he finally shared, “I have loved before, but it was parental or platonic among old friends. There was never time for such things in my line of work. Nor did I believe it was plausible to have a loved one because of it.”

Her head fell to one side an inch, brow quirked as her bottom lip jutted out slightly, “Why's that?”

His first response was a sad laugh, eyes shutting and head dipping. “My entire career was, and still is, based on the analysis of one's mind, using everything from the look in one's eyes to their visible emotions to their unconscious body language, to manipulate and entertain an audience,” he explained, his voice softer than Kohaku had ever heard him speak, “My techniques are not one to base a healthy, stable relationship on. Wondering if I'm manipulating the person I claim to love... it's something that a woman wanting something more than carnal pleasure wouldn't desire.”

Her face scrunched up as she listened, understanding his answer, but what caused her to react was within the answer itself. He sounded almost regretful in response. She leaned forward a fraction, too subtle for him to pick up on unless he concentrated on her. “Do you want to fall in love one day?”

He laughed again, looking up at her with his usual, trickster grin, “It's my turn, Kohaku-chan. Truth or dare?”

She pouted, hating his dodging of the question, but didn't allow it to stay a problem for long. Moving back, she thought about the options before finally answering “truth”.

“Will you ever make up with Senku?”

It was her turn to gawk at the question, first into surprise, then anger, then defeat. Why didn't she think that he'd ask her about this? She wasn't blind to the uncomfortable situation that the fight had put everyone else into, and surely they all wondered when things would get back to normal. However, it wasn't as simple as making up, the wound of his words still hurting and that pain will linger for a long time to come. She made a small attempt at ignoring that pain earlier, bringing up that shred of hope that there was a break in the tension, but it was hardly effective long-term. She wanted to eventually get back to normal – Senku as well, she knew that – but it couldn't just happen because it's what everyone else wants as well.

“All I can say right now is maybe,” she replied after several moments of silence, her gaze once again turning towards the camp and where she had last seen the scientist in question before back at him, arms crossing over one another and fingertips digging into her skin.

He nodded his head, although she didn't see it, satisfied enough with the answer. He knew that she likely couldn't answer yes or no, but what he wanted to hear was whether or not she was thinking about it. He was confident that she was, but wanted to hear the words from her lips, and through the context of the game, it was the best opportunity to force an answer from her, knowing that she wouldn't discard or run away from it. That wasn't who she was, and he was more than willing to take advantage of that fact.

“Truth or dare?” she asked, breaking him from his thoughts, eyes turning back towards him.

“Truth,” he replied, wanting to save whatever challenge she might give him for the very end.

“What do you honestly think of me?”

Another loaded and personal question. Gen was more than confident that this game was more of her way of attempting to gain some healing, wanting to hear from someone else that the words Senku yelled in his fit held little weight. It was a bit funny; the mentalist never thought of Kohaku as someone who would struggle with her self-image either. Although, he supposed, all humans had some semblance of these issues, especially in the teenage years, and the huntress would be no exception to that. Likely, she was turning to him with this because, similar to Senku, there wasn't a long-standing history, that she was hoping he would be more objective at looking at her. There was also the factor of him being a male. Surely, in the aftermath, Ruri and Suika had talked to her about his words, reassuring her, but he was fully aware of what people like Chrome or Ginro think of her, and so turning to them would bring her no comfort. Hence, it was him that needed to be her “saving grace”, so to speak. Another funny thought to have.

To think about her question, however... hand came to his chin in thought, piecing together the words he wanted to say, wanting to be careful with what he chose. “I guess... you frighten me,” he started with.

There was something akin to hurt that flickered across her orbs, but there was also confusion and wondering, knowing that he had more to say and so she needed to be patient. He continued, “As others have pointed out, you are quick to anger, but that isn't entirely a bad quality. The times you have shown that anger had been in fierce protection of something else. Of yourself, of your loved ones, of your village. Yes, you have acted out in relation to insults, such as when you're referred to by your gorilla nickname, but largely it had been from a place of good. A place of love. You are dedicated wholly to your family and friends, and how loyal you are frightens me as much as your blades against my throat. That's not to speak of your outer beauty, of course, but I don't believe that matters nearly as much as what you contain on the inside.”

Her mouth fell agape at the answer, feeling a rush of beats in her chest and a tinge of heat to her cheeks. Judging by her reaction, Gen safely concluded he reached the desired effect that she wanted, smiling at her to sell the honesty of his words. She cleared her throat, turning away as she tried to calm her flustered being, covering her mouth with her mouth as she let out a small cough, “Th-thank you for saying that.”

“Aww, you're blushing, Kohaku-chan~” he teased, leaning forward a bit to mockingly poke her puffy pink cheeks, although his hand was quickly slapped away, laughing instead of crying at the sudden and light jolt of pain against his skin.

“Shut up!” she snapped at him, although it seemed to make her blush more, “I just... didn't expect that answer from you. I expected some sort of crap pulled from your ass. But you... really mean that, right?”

“Of course. After all, if I had lied, I would've failed at the main premise of the game,” he replied, acting wounded for a second before flashing her that twisted grin of his.

Still feeling a bit of warmth, she smiled softly behind her hand, him catching a glimpse of it, before she relaxed, trying to settle back into her previous position, knowing that there was still a few more levels of the game to go and it was his turn to inquire of her. And so he did: “Truth or dare?”

“Truth,” she replied, thinking much like him in wanting to save the dare for the end.

“Why did you want to play this game?”

If he wasn't so keenly watching her, he would've missed the quick flinch of her fingers against her lap, although her facial expression didn't change, trying to show that she was not caught off guard by the question. Although, perhaps this was because she was expecting this question to be asked? He wasn't sure, unable to discern which thought from watching the glimmer in her eyes. She lifted one hand up, raising her pointer finger in the air.

“My answer is three-fold. One, I thought that I could learn something more about you. Since this game is based on answering questions honestly, I figured that, if I was sincere enough in my approach, you'd be willing to let down your usual act around me. And I think that you have; I don't think you've lied to me at all during all of this,” she started her explanation, pausing as she watched one brow of his quirk, taken aback by it; given their rocky start and his ongoing work as a spy, he wouldn't have guessed that she was actively attempting to get to know him.

She was correct in her assumption; the only reason why he was bothering to be as honest as he was was because of the game. And surely, she would be easily able to see through him if he did lie, having learned in the time that's passed that Kohaku was not so easily fooled. He could float a lot of things past her, of course – she was still gullible at times, although she'd surely deny it if asked – but she was not entirely without her own sort of sixth sense.

“Second... I'm sure you've already figured it out. I wanted to be selfish, wanted to hear some sort of praise about myself from someone else,” she continued, raising another finger as part of her count, “You're the only person here that I could hear something different from. Even though I wasn't expecting the answer you actually gave.”

He laughed, “Yes, I figured as much.”

She understood by the tone of his words and of his playful smirk that he wasn't judging her poorly for her desire, given his own superficial and self-serving nature. If anything, he would argue that she was justified for it under the circumstances, although he wouldn't tell her this. She raised a third finger, her lips turning into that feline grin of hers when she was at her most devious, “And third... Like I said before, I just wanted to have some fun. And you're the one that seems to be trying to encourage that, so...”

He laughed heartily, thoroughly enjoying her answer and how she trailed off, leaving the implication alone. “Oh, I see~ Well, you're not wrong. It's good to just relax and have fun every once in awhile. Although...” he stopped for a moment, tilting his head slightly to one side as he smirked, “I think I've been enjoying this more because of the challenge. Introducing new things to you all and seeing how you've reacted. Perhaps I'm similar to Senku in that way... enjoying the thrill of the challenge.”

“Have I been enough of a challenge for you tonight, then?” she asked, her voice slow and laced with a deeper and more devilish intent, cocking one brow with half-lidded eyes and for a moment, he couldn't help but stare at her pale pink lips as she spoke her question.

He hummed, leaning forwards slightly, “Hmm... to a degree, yes. But there's still your dare to go. Speaking of... it's your turn again.”

He was very curious of what she had planned for her final act, knowing that there was only this option left. She let out a quick and wistful laugh, bringing one hand up towards her face, pointer finger extended and tapping against her lips.

“I dare you to kiss me.”

Blink. Blink. “What?”

She didn't repeat her words, just giggled as she made another tapping motion against those fascinating appendages of hers, glowing with that inviting and playful attitude that's been playing with his mind over the recent course the game has taken. She was very serious about her request, that was for certain. He swore he was sweating, his eyes and mouth stuck in a flustered, wave expression as he processed the words; what a dare, indeed!

Still, Gen hesitated, pondering her reasons for the request. Of course, given their level of conversation throughout this game, it stands to reason that this was just the natural course of events. And a kiss made upon a dare has no meaning beyond it, as they both agreed with that factor during the first game. However, he also wondered if it was due to her be slighted in the first game as to why she wanted this now. Wanting to prove to herself that, dare or not, someone could want to kiss her. Given his answer to her second question, she may have drawn the conclusion that he could be that someone, and hence wanted to make that a reality. Or, perhaps she caught sight of Senku somewhere, and wanted to one-up him and discrediting his words. After all, logically, if he were watching from somewhere else, he wouldn't be able to hear what they were saying, and could only see them kissing without context. That alone also brought forth different thoughts and paths in relation to how he would react, given everything else discovered over the course of his experiment.

As he pondered, she scoffed, smirking as she dropped her cutesy and flirty act. “Heh... you don't need to do it, Gen. I was playing around,” she said, pulling back a bit from him, tucking her bangs behind her ears, “Your reaction was pretty funny, though. It's fun seeing you so flustered~”

She mocked his sing-song voice in her final words, and Gen laughed more heartily than he had all evening. To borrow Senku's words... this was proving to be more exciting than he ever could imagine. So what of his hesitation? Why not put a good cap to this evening? Whatever her reasons were didn't matter, and surely Senku would be off somewhere doing some sort of scientific work, so what is really stopping him?

Fingers curled around her chin, holding her still and her gaze on him, eyes half-lidded and baring his teeth through a seductive smirk. “I never said that I wouldn't, Kohaku-chan,” he said her name huskily and with hint to his intentions, and she couldn't stop a shiver from going up her spine.

They leaned in towards each other, eyes slowly closing, one hand of hers moving towards and resting against his chest. She could feel his heartbeat against her palm, realizing it was a bit more elevated, like her own. Their lips inched closer to one another's, mere inches then mere centimeters away from sealing, completing the dare--

Gen felt a sharp pull at the back of his collar, forcing him onto his back, hitting the ground with a large “oof!”, face flinching because of the impact before he re-opened his eyes. Hovering above him, clearly angry, was Senku, his hands balled into fists at his side. For a moment, the mentalist was scared that those fists were going to meet his face, but no such thing happened. Instead, Senku's attention quickly turned towards the bewildered Kohaku, fiercely grabbing her wrist and pulling her from her sitting position to her feet, making the attempt to drag her along with him deeper into the trees.

“H-hey!” she called out, forcing her arm from his grip, “What the hell is your problem, Senku?”

“We need to talk. _Right now_.”

He wasn't kidding. Rarely did he ever express real anger, but this time, he wasn't holding it back. There was a fury to his eyes, to his body language, to his tone, and he meant business. Kohaku wasn't scared of him, crossing her arms over her chest in defiance. He growled, a tone that reminded Gen of a lion king, once again pulling at Kohaku's arm, forcing her another few steps with him before she broke away from his grasp.

Their dominating personalities were clashing, like thunder and lightning roaring in the night, but it wouldn't stay in the camp. Kohaku scoffed, crossing her arms again and walking into the forest. With one last burning scowl towards the mentalist, Senku followed after her.

Gen watched as they disappeared into the trees, going as far away from the camp as they can to keep their conversation away from prying ears. He sighed, running a hand through his hair, smirking at the change of events.

“I suppose we're finally near the end. Too bad; I would love to see the conclusion to my experiment, but ah well.”

\----------

To say that he was pissed was an understatement. Anger, like most emotions, wasn't something worthy of Senku's time, especially given his intellect and how he could find solutions to his anger versus just raging. However, this was not one of those times. And just like before, he had lost all of his control.

He didn't watch the entire interaction between Gen and Kohaku, coming in about halfway through their game. He kept a distance, wanting to stay out of their immediate vision but keeping them within his own, curious as to what they may be doing. He couldn't hear their words, although he could see their expressions, watching as they seemed to be laughing and enjoying whatever they were doing. His fists clenched at his sides as he took particular interest in Kohaku, seeing her smile and laugh with absolutely no qualms. Something that he secretly enjoyed when it was just the two of them, and now was just another miss and regret.

Teeth gritted and fists clenched as she blushed over something Gen said to her, hating that look. Why the hell is the mentalist making her act like that? What the hell did he say to her? He had to be flirting with her, and she was enjoying it, and that made him sick. That feeling only increased as she turned the dial, her gaze turning more enticing as though she was flirting back. Does she like him all of a sudden? Why else would she be so comfortable with him like this? Or was she doing this to hurt him, to spite him and prove him wrong? Being proven wrong is something that he hates, so this would be a way to do it, but still...?

Then came the moment that his blood began to run cold, that sickness turning to fire. Fury growing as Gen's hand connected with Kohaku's face, unbridled anger growing as they began to lean in towards one another. Legs moving and acting force to stop them in the second before their lips would collide.

He wasn't going to let this happen. This stand-off between himself and the huntress was going to end. More than certain, he was sure that this was being done to try and spite him, and that wasn't going to be left to stand. And so, with direction to the trees, this is what led to the moment here and now: following Kohaku as they went far enough from the main camp where their argument and words could not be so easily overheard.

“So what the hell did you bring me out here for?”

The question was asked once they finally stopped in their tracks, satisfied enough with the distance, her body turning to face him. Eyes and brows were narrowed with irritation, arms still crossed over her chest, her body stance showing her clear annoyance and defiance.

“I want to know what the hell you were doing with that act of yours,” he fought back, mirroring her.

She gawked, “What act?”

“Do you have feelings for Gen all of a sudden or something?”

“Not at all! He's a friend, that's all.”

“Then why were you two about to kiss?”

She scoffed, tossing her head back to move her bangs back from her face. “I dared him to. We were playing truth or dare,” she explained, and one of Senku's hands balled into a fist out of her sight.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah?”

Her shoulders fell, but it wasn't a sign that she was calming down. “What's the big deal? So I dared him to kiss me. What's _your_ problem with that?” she asked, emphasizing her primary point.

“You think that with someone like Gen, it'd just be a kiss?”

“Why would it be more than that?”

“You do remember his words from the first meeting, correct?”

“Yeah? Something about a harem of pretty girls? So what? We've already talked about this: it's being made with a dare. That's all; just because we kiss on a dare doesn't mean I suddenly want to be part of his stupid idea.”

She took one step forward towards him, but he didn't flinch. “Why is that you're _so_ against me being kissed or kissing someone? First you didn't want to kiss my cheek, but now it's you stopping me from kissing Gen. Is there a reason for this or what?”

He didn't answer, but namely because he _couldn't_ answer. Once again, the denial was setting in, not wanting to admit to his changing stance, not wanting to accept the feelings he already confirmed. There was a fight on whether or not to maintain the status quo, not knowing what full honesty was going to lead to. Would she accept his feelings, reject them, share them? If they do, what would that do for the rest of the village and the Kingdom of Science? Would it be weaponized, demonized? Would it be accepted, be pushed towards something else? Too many unknowns that he couldn't factor for. But it was in his non-answer that fueled Kohaku's anger even further.

“Seriously? You can't even answer me? You can be honest at _any other time_ when it comes to science and what you need done for the road maps, but to this, you're keeping your mouth shut?”

She stomped over towards, pressing a pointed finger hard against his chest, making him flinch and falter. “Well, you need to get this one thing straight then, Senku. _**YOU**_ may be hard pressed against romance and all of that crap, but it doesn't mean the rest of us – including me – has to fall in line with that,” she raged, “You can't stop any of us from wanting to fall in love or be with someone else. You may think that you can control us because we're devoted to your cause, but you don't have control over our hearts. So you better get that through your damn head.”

She pushed off of him with a flat palm, forcing more space between the two of them. “And if your issue is specifically with me, then I got another thing to say to you. If I want to kiss Gen outside of a dare, and if he wants to kiss me too, you can't stop it. Same thing even if I wanted to do it with Kinro or Ginro or even some asshole like Magma!” she continued, “If you think that a head full of love is going to keep me from doing my work as a protector, then you're wrong. Because guess what? Love is always on my mind. Everything I do is for the people I love. And if that love eventually evolves into something special for someone else, then it does. You _can't_ and _won't_ stop me. And if that doesn't sit well with you, well, tough shit.”

With a large breath, having ranted without taking one properly, she moved past his side, leaving him to watch her stomp off, done with the conversation as it was. Senku was stunned, left in the dust of her ranting, but broke free of the spell quickly. This wasn't going to end like last time, he was going to make sure of that. He shook, seething, taking in a deep breath before he steeled himself.

“None of that is the reason!”

She stopped in her tracks, quickly turning on her heel, staring at him with intensity. “Then what is it?”

Blood and ocean collided. He quivered, she remained still.

“You're right; if any of you wanted to fall in love, there's nothing I can do to stop you. And I wouldn't want to. That's none of my business. This has nothing to do with that.”

“Okay... then why is it just me that you have a problem with?”

“That's...”

Blue softened, noticing his struggle as he tried to say the answer, but finding it stuck in his throat. He couldn't get himself to say those words. Even though he knew that he had to. He had to say them, or else this would never end! She took two steps closer to him. “What is it, Senku?” she asked, before softly begging, “Please... just be honest with me. There has to be a reason why you've been acting this way, so tell me.”

Being honest was the problem. Why was it that he was struggling with these words!? How is it that he could go a full minute without taking a breath, spilling out the most complicated of mathematical equations and scientific formulas, but when it came to this he was freezing up?

Then, like a switch flipping in his mind, he gave up on the words. Without a second thought, he took long strides towards her, roughly colliding his lips against hers, one hand at her wrist and the other at the side of her face. The force of the motion made Kohaku go completely breathless, falling back a few steps until her back collided with the trunk of a tree. Her eyes widened as large as saucers, a moan against his lips as skin met bark, with now it being her turn to shake from the sheer intensity of the kiss. Her eyes shut tight, taking her free hand and pressing it against his chest, but she didn't push him off of her. Instead, she was entranced by his heartbeat. It almost seemed calm, at least in comparison to her own, which was beating as if she ran a thousand miles.

The kiss only lasted a few seconds, not long enough for the shock to wear off, before Senku backed away, their lips parting, his closed eyes now reopening to see her dilated irises, and now she remembered how to breathe. The hand at her face fell, loosely clinging to her upper arm instead, the other still keeping a firm hold upon the wrist. Then, as if in classic Senku fashion, he said the only words that could answer the questions she had.

“That's why.”

It began to click in her head the reasons why he had acted in the way he did. Swollen lips quivered, “S-senku... do you like me? Like that?”

He didn't answer, but the tinge of blush on his face – not entirely clear in the dark, but she knew it was there and bright – said more than what the words could. Her face was already feeling flushed, but now it was more so, and if her heart didn't slow down she swore it was just going pop right out of her chest. Fingers at his chest flinched, curling the tips against the rough fabric of his lab coat.

“If that's true, then why did you say everything that you did? Why did you blow up at me?”

“Given what I told you when we first met, can't you understand why I did?”

She knew exactly what he was referring to, and while she was starting to understand, she was still confused, expressing this to him with a quirked brow and tilted head. He sighed, figuring that this was the clue that he needed to explain it more thoroughly. “I've never felt this way before, Kohaku, because I didn't think I'd ever would. And I couldn't accept how illogical they were. That's not even to say what could happen now that it's out there,” he added, much to his very clear discomfort.

She blinked, at first still puzzled by his words, but then realizing what he meant. It wasn't at the comment of the illogical thoughts on his feelings – if anything, she actually didn't need that part explained, knowing Senku as well as she does – but it was at the “out there” part. He was meaning about what her reaction was to his confession. Her blush was probably as bright as that first light Senku made, when he illuminated their world with something that hadn't been seen in over 3700 years, realizing now that it was her turn to be honest and to answer him!

That befuddled turn of her lips changed into a warm smile, the hand at his chest moving to rest against his cheek, giving it a faint caress. “I like you too, Senku,” she answered clearly, without hesitation or regret.

Now his heart beat was racing. How it wasn't throughout this entire ordeal, he didn't really know; perhaps it was, but his brain wasn't registering it. However, he was now, although unlike the rest of the times that's happened lately, it wasn't at all uncomfortable. It was actually liberating, this time!

“... For how long?”

“I don't know. Awhile, at least. But I wasn't going to tell you. At least not for awhile.”

She laughed, “I mean, it's like you said. A brain filled with love is trouble-proned. And there's enough trouble around here without you having to deal with my feelings.”

There was a brief level of sadness to her grin and orbs as she continued, “So... I was just going to wait. Wait until after you've achieved your goal and when there was maybe a chance that you'd consider settling down. Giving us both time to strengthen the bonds we have right now, too. There's a reason why I said I liked you right now, and not love. Because I know my feelings aren't there... yet.”

The way she lingered on the “yet” spoke volumes, implying the one fact that certainly they both knew: those feelings were only going to evolve as their relationship did. And echoing that was his thoughts about his own, agreeing with the sentiment. He chuckled, leaning in as their foreheads met.

“Damn it, lioness... you've really got me this time.”

“Well, you can't be the only one with all of the answers, you know.”

Their laughs echoed one another, and finally it seemed as though things were better. There was no more misunderstandings, no more anger or hate, no more walls and fog that kept them apart. There was finally a dissolving of the tension, the air as clear as it had been before. And while they both knew now where their hearts were, there was the unspoken agreement between them that this wasn't going to get in the way of their roles. He would still focus on reviving all of humanity, and she would be by his side to help him achieve the goal. Then, when that goal was reached, they could face one another like this again. But when that happened...

Senku smirked, not finishing that thought of his, keeping it locked away for that day. They pulled away from one another, touches and closeness coming to a comfortable end, agreeing to go back to the camp now that things were settled and better. As they exited the forest, Gen was not too far from where he originally started, absentmindedly drawing in the dirt with a stick, awaiting for them to return. His eyes turned towards them as they came back, noticing the easy air around them and the smiles on their faces, and he smiled himself, glad to see that they had finally made up.

However, before he could make the attempt to approach them, Senku flashed that devilish and plotting grin of his own, moving past and grabbing Gen's collar with a backward swing of his arm, pulling the man along towards the lab, telling him of some “late night experiments” that he needed assistance on. The mentalist pleaded with Kohaku to have her help him, but she shrugged her shoulders, giving him a not-so-sorry glance, before she made her way closer to the fire, where Chrome and Suika were chatting about something or another.

They both took noticed of her more eased expression, having seen her disappear into the trees with Senku awhile back, curiously asking her if things were alright. When she nodded, they smiled and sighed with relief, glad that they had made up and things were going to start getting back to normal. Come tomorrow, they would be back to the everyday routine, everything feeling the same as it was before, with no extra tension or tip-toeing around. Everything was back to the way it always had been.

Although, for the king and the queen, things were just a little bit sweeter, knowing that there was another goal for them to achieve when everything was said and done. As for Gen, despite his exhaustion over the labor that Senku was punishing him with, he smiled so brightly to himself.

His hypothesis was proven true, and his experiment was a sound success. And that was worth all of the mess.

_**-end-** _


End file.
